Short control channel element (scce) to short resource element groups (sreg) mapping for short physical downlink control channel (spdcch)

ABSTRACT

Short Control Channel Elements (SCCE) to Short Resource Element Groups (SREG) mapping for Short Physical Downlink Control Channel (SPDCCH) is provided. A User Equipment (UE) receives a communication from a base station; determines a mapping between one or more SCCE and corresponding SREG; and processes the communication based on the mapping. A base station determines a mapping between one or more SCCE and corresponding SREG for a communication to a UE and transmits a communication to the UE based on the mapping. In this way, the localized and distributed SCCE to SREG mapping for CRS-based SPDCCH is defined. Also, the SCCE to SREG mapping for 2 and 3 OFDM symbols DMRS-based SPDCCH is defined. For DMRS-based SPDCCH, a distributed configuration at SCCE level is defined. This may improve latency and can improve the average throughput of a communications system. Radio resource efficiency could be positively impacted by latency reductions.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of provisional patent applicationSer. No. 62/565,942, filed Sep. 29, 2017, the disclosure of which ishereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosure relates to wireless communications, and in particular, tosignaling for Short Transmission Time Interval (STTI) transmissions.

BACKGROUND

The present disclosure is described within the context of Long TermEvolution (LTE), i.e. Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio AccessNetworks (E-UTRANs). It should be understood that the problems andsolutions described herein are equally applicable to wireless accessnetworks and User-Equipments (UEs) implementing other accesstechnologies and standards (e.g. 5G NR). LTE is used as an exampletechnology where suitable, and using LTE in the description therefore isparticularly useful for understanding the problem and solutions solvingthe problem.

Packet data latency is one of the performance metrics that vendors,operators and also end-users (via speed test applications) regularlymeasures. Latency measurements are done in all phases of a radio accessnetwork system lifetime, when verifying a new software release or systemcomponent, when deploying a system and when the system is in commercialoperation.

Shorter latency than previous generations of 3GPP RATs was oneperformance metric that guided the design of LTE. LTE is also nowrecognized by the end-users to be a system that provides faster accessto internet and lower data latencies than previous generations of mobileradio technologies.

Packet data latency is important not only for the perceivedresponsiveness of the system; it is also a parameter that indirectlyinfluences the throughput of the system. HTTP/TCP is the dominatingapplication and transport layer protocol suite used on the internettoday. According to HTTP Archive (http://httparchive.org/trends.php) thetypical size of HTTP based transactions over the internet are in therange of a few 10's of Kbyte up to 1 Mbyte. In this size range, the TCPslow start period is a significant part of the total transport period ofthe packet stream. During TCP slow start the performance is latencylimited. Hence, improved latency can rather easily be showed to improvethe average throughput, for this type of TCP based data transactions.

Radio resource efficiency could be positively impacted by latencyreductions. Lower packet data latency could increase the number oftransmissions possible within a certain delay bound; hence higher BlockError Rate (BLER) targets could be used for the data transmissionsfreeing up radio resources potentially improving the capacity of thesystem.

One area to address when it comes to packet latency reductions is thereduction of transport time of data and control signaling, by addressingthe length of a transmission time interval (TTI). In LTE release 8, aTTI corresponds to one subframe (SF) of length 1 millisecond (ms). Onesuch 1 ms TTI is constructed by using 14 Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplexing (OFDM) or Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access(SC-FDMA) symbols in the case of normal cyclic prefix and 12 OFDM orSC-FDMA symbols in the case of extended cyclic prefix.

Currently, work in 3GPP is ongoing on standardizing “short TTI” or“STTI” operation, where scheduling and transmission can be done on afaster timescale. Therefore, the legacy LTE subframe is subdivided intoseveral STTIs. Supported lengths for STTI of 2 and 7 OFDM symbols arecurrently discussed. Data transmission in DL may happen per STTI via theShort Physical Downlink Shared Channel (SPDSCH), which may include acontrol region Short Physical Downlink Control Channel SPDCCH. In Uplink(UL), data is transmitted per STTI via SPUSCH; control can betransmitted via SPUCCH.

Different alternatives are possible to schedule a STTI in UL or Downlink(DL) to a UE. In one alternative, individual UEs receive informationabout SPDCCH candidates for short TTI via Radio Resource Control (RRC)configuration, telling the UE where to look for the control channel forshort TTI, i.e. SPDCCH. The Downlink Control Information (DCI) for STTIis actually included directly in SPDCCH. In another alternative, the DCIfor STTI is split into two parts, a slow DCI sent in PDCCH and a fastDCI sent in SPDCCH. The slow grant can contain the frequency allocationfor a DL and an UL short TTI band to be used for short TTI operation, itcan also contain refinement about SPDCCH candidate locations.

Improved scheduling of STTIs in UL or DL to a UE is needed.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods for short Control Channel Elements (SCCE) to shortResource Element Groups (SREG) mapping for short Physical DownlinkControl Channel (SPDCCH) are provided. In some embodiments, a methodimplemented in a User Equipment (UE) includes receiving a communicationfrom a base station; determining a mapping between one or more SCCE andcorresponding SREG for the communication from the base station; andprocessing the communication from the base station based on the mappingbetween one or more SCCE and corresponding SREG for the communicationfrom the base station. In some embodiments, a method implemented in abase station includes determining a mapping between one or more SCCE andcorresponding SREG for a communication to a UE and transmitting acommunication to the UE based on the mapping between the one or moreSCCE and the corresponding SREG. In this way, the localized anddistributed SCCE to SREG mapping for 1 and 2 OFDM symbols Cell SpecificReference Signal (CRS)-based SPDCCH is defined. Also, the SCCE to SREGmapping for 2 and 3 OFDM symbols DMRS-based SPDCCH is defined. ForDMRS-based SPDCCH, a distributed configuration at SCCE level is defined.This may improve latency and can improve the average throughput of acommunications system. Radio resource efficiency could be positivelyimpacted by latency reductions. Lower packet data latency could increasethe number of transmissions possible within a certain delay bound; hencehigher Block Error Rate (BLER) targets could be used for the datatransmissions freeing up radio resources potentially improving thecapacity of the system.

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to methods for the definition of theSCCE to SREG mapping in STTI operation. The methods are based on thedemodulation scheme for SPDCCH, i.e. CRS-based and DMRS-based SPDCCH, aswell as on the number of OFDM symbols configured for SPDCCH.

According to some embodiments, it is possible:

-   -   To define the localized and distributed SCCE to SREG mapping for        1 and 2 OFDM symbols CRS-based SPDCCH    -   To define the SCCE to SREG mapping for 2 and 3 OFDM symbols        DMRS-based SPDCCH    -   For DMRS-based SPDCCH, to define a distributed configuration at        SCCE level.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawing figures incorporated in and forming a part ofthis specification illustrate several aspects of the disclosure, andtogether with the description serve to explain the principles of thedisclosure.

FIG. 1 illustrates the LTE time-domain structure;

FIG. 2 illustrates the LTE downlink physical resource;

FIG. 3 illustrates a downlink subframe;

FIG. 4 illustrates CCE aggregation levels 8, 4, 2, and 1;

FIG. 5 illustrates a search space of FIG. 4 according to someembodiments;

FIG. 6 illustrates an SREG configuration based on twelve REs accordingto some embodiments;

FIG. 7 illustrates distributed and localized configurations for 1osCRS-based SPDCCH, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 8 illustrates distributed and localized configurations for 2osCRS-based SPDCCH, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 9 illustrates an SCCE to SREG mapping in 2os and 3os DMRS-basedSPDCCH, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of distributed DMRS-based SPDCCHcandidates for one UE, according to some embodiments;

FIG. 11 illustrates a method of operating a UE, according to someembodiments;

FIG. 12 illustrates a method of operating a base station, according tosome embodiments;

FIG. 13 illustrates a wireless network in accordance with someembodiments;

FIG. 14 illustrates a UE in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 15 illustrates a virtualization environment in accordance with someembodiments;

FIG. 16 illustrates a telecommunication network connected via anintermediate network to a host computer in accordance with someembodiments;

FIG. 17 illustrates a host computer communicating via a base stationwith a user equipment over a partially wireless connection in accordancewith some embodiments;

FIG. 18 illustrates methods implemented in a communication systemincluding a host computer, a base station, and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 19 illustrates methods implemented in a communication systemincluding a host computer, a base station, and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 20 illustrates methods implemented in a communication systemincluding a host computer, a base station, and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 21 illustrates methods implemented in a communication systemincluding a host computer, a base station and a user equipment inaccordance with some embodiments; and

FIG. 22 illustrates a virtualization apparatus in accordance with someembodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The embodiments set forth below represent information to enable thoseskilled in the art to practice the embodiments and illustrate the bestmode of practicing the embodiments. Upon reading the followingdescription in light of the accompanying drawing figures, those skilledin the art will understand the concepts of the disclosure and willrecognize applications of these concepts not particularly addressedherein. It should be understood that these concepts and applicationsfall within the scope of the disclosure.

Latency Reduction with Short TTI Operation

Packet data latency is one of the performance metrics that vendors,operators and also end-users (via speed test applications) regularlymeasures. Latency measurements are done in all phases of a radio accessnetwork system lifetime, when verifying a new software release or systemcomponent, when deploying a system and when the system is in commercialoperation.

Shorter latency than previous generations of 3GPP RATs was oneperformance metric that guided the design of Long Term Evolution (LTE).LTE is also now recognized by the end-users to be a system that providesfaster access to internet and lower data latencies than previousgenerations of mobile radio technologies.

Packet data latency is important not only for the perceivedresponsiveness of the system; it is also a parameter that indirectlyinfluences the throughput of the system. HTTP/TCP is the dominatingapplication and transport layer protocol suite used on the internettoday. According to HTTP Archive (http://httparchive.org/trends.php) thetypical size of HTTP based transactions over the internet are in therange of a few 10's of Kbyte up to 1 Mbyte. In this size range, the TCPslow start period is a significant part of the total transport period ofthe packet stream. During TCP slow start the performance is latencylimited. Hence, improved latency can rather easily be showed to improvethe average throughput, for this type of TCP based data transactions.

Radio resource efficiency could be positively impacted by latencyreductions. Lower packet data latency could increase the number oftransmissions possible within a certain delay bound; hence higher BlockError Rate (BLER) targets could be used for the data transmissionsfreeing up radio resources potentially improving the capacity of thesystem.

One area to address when it comes to packet latency reductions is thereduction of transport time of data and control signaling, by addressingthe length of a transmission time interval (TTI). In LTE release 8, aTTI corresponds to one subframe (SF) of length 1 millisecond. One such 1ms TTI is constructed by using 14 Orthogonal Frequency DivisionMultiplexing (OFDM) or Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access(SC-FDMA) symbols in the case of normal cyclic prefix and 12 OFDM orSC-FDMA symbols in the case of extended cyclic prefix.

Currently, work in 3GPP is ongoing on standardizing “short TTI” or“STTI” operation, where scheduling and transmission can be done on afaster timescale. Therefore, the legacy LTE subframe is subdivided intoseveral STTI. Supported lengths for STTI of 2 and 7 OFDM symbols arecurrently discussed. Data transmission in DL may happen per STTI via theSPDSCH, which may include a control region SPDCCH. In UL, data istransmitted per STTI via SPUSCH; control can be transmitted via SPUCCH.

Scheduling STTI

Different alternatives are possible to schedule a STTI in UL or DL to aUE. In one alternative, individual UEs receive information about SPDCCHcandidates for short TTI via RRC configuration, telling the UE where tolook for the control channel for short TTI, i.e. SPDCCH. The DCI forSTTI is actually included directly in SPDCCH. In another alternative,the DCI for STTI is split into two parts, a slow DCI sent in PDCCH and afast DCI sent in SPDCCH. The slow grant can contain the frequencyallocation for a DL and an UL short TTI band to be used for short TTIoperation, it can also contain refinement about SPDCCH candidatelocations.

LTE Downlink Structure

In the time domain, 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) downlinktransmissions are organized into radio frames of 10 ms, each radio frameconsisting of ten equally-sized subframes of length T_(subframe)=1 ms.This is shown in FIG. 1.

LTE technology is a mobile broadband wireless communication technologyin which transmissions from base stations (referred to as eNBs) tomobile stations (referred to as user equipment (UE)) are sent usingorthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). OFDM splits thesignal into multiple parallel sub-carriers in frequency. The basic unitof transmission in LTE is a resource block (RB) which in its most commonconfiguration consists of 12 subcarriers and 7 OFDM symbols (one slot)in the case of normal cyclic prefix. In the case of extended cyclicprefix, a RB consists of 6 OFDM symbols in the time domain. A commonterm is also a physical resource block (PRB) to indicate the RB in thephysical resource. Two PRB in the same subframe that use the same 12subcarriers are denoted a PRB pair. This is the minimum resource unitthat can be scheduled in LTE.

A unit of one subcarrier and 1 OFDM symbol is referred to as a resourceelement (RE) see FIG. 2. Thus, a PRB consists of 84 REs. An LTE radiosubframe is composed of multiple resource blocks in frequency with thenumber of PRBs determining the bandwidth of the system and two slots intime see FIG. 3.

Messages transmitted over the radio link to users can be broadlyclassified as control messages or data messages. Control messages areused to facilitate the proper operation of the system as well as properoperation of each UE within the system. Control messages could includecommands to control functions such as the transmitted power from a UE,signaling of RBs within which the data is to be received by the UE ortransmitted from the UE and so on.

In Rel-8, the first one to four OFDM symbols, depending on theconfiguration, in a subframe are reserved to contain such controlinformation, see FIG. 3. Furthermore, in Rel-11, an enhanced controlchannel was introduced (EPDCCH), in which PRB pairs are reserved toexclusively contain EPDCCH transmissions, although excluding from thePRB pair the one to four first symbols that may contain controlinformation to UEs of releases earlier than Rel-11.

Hence, the EPDCCH is frequency multiplexed with PDSCH transmissionscontrary to PDCCH which is time multiplexed with PDSCH transmissions.The resource allocation (RA) for PDSCH transmissions exists in severalRA types, depending on the downlink control information (DCI) format.Some RA types has a minimum scheduling granularity of a resource blockgroup (RBG), see TS 36.211. An RBG is a set of adjacent (in frequency)resource blocks and when scheduling the UE, the UE is allocatedresources in terms of RBGs and not individual RBs.

When a UE is scheduled in the downlink from an EPDCCH, the UE shallassume that the PRB pairs carrying the DL assignment are excluded fromthe resource allocation, i.e. rate matching applies. For example, if aUE is scheduled PDSCH in a certain RBG of size 3 adjacent PRB pairs, andone of these PRB pairs contain the DL assignment, the UE shall assumethat the PDSCH is only transmitted in the two remaining PRB pairs inthis RBG. Note also that multiplexing of PDSCH and any EPDCCHtransmission within a PRB pair is not supported in Rel-11.

The PDCCHs and EPDCCHs are transmitted over radio resources that areshared between several user equipments (UE). Each PDCCH consists ofsmaller parts, known as control channel elements (CCE), to enable linkadaptation (by controlling the number of CCE a PDCCH is utilizing). Itis specified that for PDCCH, a UE has to monitor 4 aggregation levels ofCCEs, namely, 1, 2, 4, and 8, for UE-specific search space and 2aggregation levels of CCEs, namely, 4 and 8, for common search space.

In TS 36.213, Section 9.1.1, a search space S_(k) ^((L)) aggregationlevel L∈{1,2,4,8} L∈{1,2,4,8} is defined by a set of PDCCH candidates.For each serving cell on which PDCCH is monitored, the CCEscorresponding to PDCCH candidate m of the search space S_(k) ^((L)) aregiven by

L{(Y_(k)+m′)mod └N_(CCE,k)/L┘}

Where i=0, . . . , L−1. For the common search space m′=m. For the PDCCHUE specific search space, if the UE is configured with carrier indicatorfield then m′=m+M^((L))*n_(CI), where n_(CI) is the carrier indicatorfield value, otherwise m′=m, when m=0, . . . , M^((L))−1. M^((L)) is thenumber of PDCCH candidates to monitor in the given search space. EachCCE contains 36 QPSK modulation symbols. The value of M^((L)) isspecified by Table 9.1.1-1 in 36.213, as shown below in Table 1.

TABLE 1 M^((L)) vs. Aggregation Level L for PDCCH Search space S_(k)^((L)) Number of Aggregation Size PDCCH Type level_(L) [in CCEs]candidates M^((L)) UE- 1 6 6 specific 2 12 6 4 8 2 8 16 2 Common 4 16 48 16 2

PDCCH Processing

After channel coding, scrambling, modulation and interleaving of thecontrol information the modulated symbols are mapped to the resourceelements in the control region. To multiplex multiple PDCCH onto thecontrol region, control channel elements (CCE) has been defined, whereeach CCE maps to 36 resource elements. One PDCCH can, depending on theinformation payload size and the required level of channel codingprotection, consist of 1, 2, 4, or 8 CCEs, and the number is denoted asthe CCE aggregation level (AL). By choosing the aggregation level,link-adaptation of the PDCCH obtained. In total there are N_(CCE) CCEsavailable for all the PDCCH to be transmitted in the subframe and thenumber N_(CCE) varies from subframe to subframe depending on the numberof control symbols n and the number of antenna ports configured.

As N_(CCE) varies from subframe to subframe, the terminal needs toblindly determine the position and the number of CCEs used for its PDCCHwhich can be a computationally intensive decoding task. Therefore, somerestrictions in the number of possible blind decodings a terminal needsto go through have been introduced. For instance, the CCEs are numberedand CCE aggregation levels of size K can only start on CCE numbersevenly divisible by K, see FIG. 4.

The set of candidate control channels formed by CCEs where a terminalneeds to blindly decode and search for a valid PDCCH are called searchspaces. This is the set of CCEs on a AL a terminal should monitor forscheduling assignments or other control information, see example in FIG.5. In each subframe and on each AL, a terminal will attempt to decodeall the PDCCHs that can be formed from the CCEs in its search space. Ifthe CRC checks, then the content of the PDCCH is assumed to be valid forthe terminal and it further processes the received information. Oftenwill two or more terminals have overlapping search spaces and thenetwork has to select one of them for scheduling of the control channel.When this happens, the non-scheduled terminal is said to be blocked. Thesearch spaces vary pseudo-randomly from subframe to subframe to minimizethis blocking probability.

A search space is further divided to a common and a terminal specificpart. In the common search space, the PDCCH containing information toall or a group of terminals is transmitted (paging, system informationetc.). If carrier aggregation is used, a terminal will find the commonsearch space present on the primary component carrier (PCC) only. Thecommon search space is restricted to aggregation levels 4 and 8 to givesufficient channel code protection for all terminals in the cell (sinceit is a broadcast channel, link adaptation cannot be used). The m₈ andm₄ first PDCCH (with lowest CCE number) in an AL of 8 or 4 respectivelybelongs to the common search space. For efficient use of the CCEs in thesystem, the remaining search space is terminal specific at eachaggregation level.

EPDCCH Details

Similar as for PDCCH, the EPDCCH is transmitted over radio resourcesshared by multiple UEs and enhanced CCE (eCCE) is introduced as theequivalent to CCE for PDCCH. An eCCE has also a fixed number of RE butthe number of RE available for EPDCCH mapping is generally fewer thanthis fixed number because many RE are occupied by other signals such asCRS and CSI-RS. Code chain rate matching is applied whenever a REbelonging to a eCCE contains other colliding signals such as the CRS,CSI-RS, legacy control region or in case of TDD, the GP and UpPTS36.211.

In Rel-11, the EPDCCH supports only the UE specific search space whereasthe common search space remains to be monitored in the PDCCH in the samesubframe. In future releases, the common search space may be introducedalso for EPDCCH transmission.

It is specified that the UE monitors eCCE aggregation levels 1, 2, 4, 8,16, and 32 with restrictions shown.

In distributed transmission, an EPDCCH is mapped to resource elements inup to D PRB pairs, where D=2, 4, or 8 (the value of D=16 is also beingconsidered in 3GPP). In this way can frequency diversity be achieved forthe EPDCCH message. In localized transmission, an EPDCCH is mapped toone PRB pair only, if the space allows (which is always possible foraggregation level one and two and for normal subframes and normal CPlength also for level four). In case the aggregation level of the EPDCCHis too large, a second PRB pair is used as well, and so on, using morePRB pairs, until all eCCE belonging to the EPDCCH has been mapped.

To facilitate the mapping of eCCEs to physical resources each PRB pairis divided into 16 enhanced resource element groups (eREGs) and eacheCCE is split into 4 or 8 eREGs for normal and extended cyclic prefix,respectively. An EPDCCH is consequently mapped to a multiple of four oreight eREGs depending on the aggregation level.

These eREG belonging to an ePDCCH resides in either a single PRB pair(as is typical for localized transmission) or a multiple of PRB pairs(as is typical for distributed transmission).

Assignment of EPDCCH Candidates

A UE is configured by higher layers with one or two EPDCCH-PRB-sets forEPDCCH monitoring, as described in 36.213. Each EPDCCH-PRB-set consistsof a set of ECCEs numbered from 0 to N_(ECCE,p,k)−1, where N_(ECCE,p,k)is the number of ECCEs in EPDCCH-PRB-set p of subframe k.

The UE shall monitor a set of EPDCCH candidates, that is, attempting todecode each of the possible EPDCCHs, at different aggregation levels,within the set. The set of EPDCCH candidates to monitor are defined interms of EPDCCH UE-specific search spaces.

The ECCEs corresponding to an EPDCCH candidate m of the UE-specificsearch space are given by the following formulation:

${L\left\{ {\left( {Y_{p,k} + \left\lfloor \frac{m \cdot N_{{ECCE},p,k}}{L \cdot M_{p}^{(L)}} \right\rfloor + b} \right){mod}\left\lfloor {N_{{ECCE},p,k}\text{/}L} \right\rfloor} \right\}} +$

Where Y_(p,k) refers to UE RNTI based offset, L is aggregation level,i=0, . . . , L−1, b is equal to the carrier indicator field value (ifthe UE is configured with it, otherwise b=0), m=0, 1, . . . , M_(p)^((L))−1, and M_(p) ^((L)) is the number of EPDCCH candidates to monitorat aggregation level L in EPDCCH-PRB-set p.

SPDCCH for STTI

In order to quickly schedule low latency data on the short TTIs, a newShort PDCCH (SPDCCH) needs to be defined. Since the Short TTI operationis desired to co-exist with legacy TTI operation, the SPDCCH should beplaced in-band within PDSCH, still leaving resources for legacy data.

Legacy control channels PDCCH and EPDCCH use CRS and DMRS demodulation,respectively. For operation in both these environment, an SPDCCH shouldsupport both CRS and DMRS, and to maintain efficiently, resources notused by SPDCCH should be used by SPDSCH (Short PDSCH).

To facilitate the definition of the SPDCCH mapping to resource elementsspecial entities are defined: short resource element groups (SREG) andshort control channel elements (SCCE). This follows the methodology usedso far in the LTE specifications for defining PDCCH and ePDCCH, asdescribed in previous section. Note that the definition of the samemapping can also be done without using these terms or by usingequivalent terms.

SREG Configuration

The length for SPDCCH in time domain has defined to be 1 or 2 OFDMsymbols for CRS-based SPDCCH for both 2 OFDM symbol (os) STTI and 1-slotSTTI. For DMRS-based SPDCCH, and 2 or 3 OFDM symbols have been definedfor 2os STTI and 2 OFDM symbols for 1-slot STTI. An SREG has beendefined as 1 RB within 1 OFDM symbol including REs for CRS and/or DMRSapplied to DMRS based SPDCCH.

The SREG configuration for SPDCCH is then defined as the complete numberof REs in a PRB within 1 OFDM symbol (i.e., 12 REs per SREG in 1 OFDMsymbol). Therefore, depending on the SPDCCH length, one or more SREG areincluded in a RB, as depicted in FIG. 6. FIG. 6 shows the number of SREGconsidering 1 OFDM symbol SPDCCH, 2 OFDM symbol SPDCCH and 3 OFDM symbolSPDCCH. Each index, i.e. {0, 1, 2}, represents an SREG group.

SCCE Configuration

The number of SREG required to build up an SCCE for a given SPDCCH canvary as well as their placement scheme along the frequency resourcesused for STTI operation. For CRS-based SPDCCH, an SCCE has been definedto be composed by four SREG, i.e., 1 SCCE=4 SREG. For DMRS-based SPDCCH,some options have been considered for the SCCE definition based on theSTTI length. For 2os STTI and 1-slot STTI, an SCCE might be defined tobe composed by four SREG, i.e., 1 SCCE=4 SREG. For the case of 3os STTIlength, an SCCE might be defined to be composed by six SREG, i.e. 1SCCE=6 SREG. This is assuming that DMRS bundling over 2 PRBs is alwaysapplied for DMRS-based SPDCCH.

In order to support good frequency diversity, or a more localizedplacement, localized and distributed placement schemes of SREG buildingup the same SCCE are defined:

-   -   Localized scheme: SREGs building the same SCCE can be localized        in frequency domain to allow for a SPDCCH resource allocation        confined in a limited frequency band. This facilitates the use        of beamforming for DMRS based SPDCCH.    -   Distributed scheme: A distributed SREG location can be used to        allow frequency diversity gains. In this case, multiple UEs may        have the SREG of their SPDCCH mapped to the same PRB on        different REs. Distributing over a wide frequency range also        more easily makes the SPDCCH fit into one single OFDM symbol.        For UEs with DMRS based demodulation, user-specific beamforming        is not recommended with distributed SCCE locations.        Furthermore, based on the demodulation scheme, these schemes        have been defined as follows:    -   For an RB set configured with more than 1 symbol and for CRS        based SPDCCH, the localized and distributed SCCE-to-SREG mapping        is defined adopting a frequency-first time-second SCCE-to-SREG        mapping. This means, that a SCCE is built first in frequency        domain and then in time domain.    -   For an RB set configured with more than 1 symbol and for DMRS        based SPDCCH, the localized and distributed SCCE-to-SREG mapping        is defined adopting a time-first frequency-second SCCE-to-SREG        mapping. This means, that a SCCE is built first in time domain        and then in frequency domain.        Configuration of PRBs that can be Used for SPDCCH

Up to two sets of PRB that can be used for SPDCCH are configured peruser. It has been recommended to support the configuration of severalsets of PRBs used for SPDCCH in order to configure one set of PRBsfollowing the localized SPDCCH mapping and another set with thedistributed mapping. The UE would monitor both sets and the eNB couldselect the most favorable configuration/PRB set for a given STTI and UE.

The set of PRB assigned for the SPDCCH, which includes PRBs (nonecessarily consecutive) from the available STTI band, may be configuredvia RRC signaling. The set of PRBs are configured by the eNB using acombinatorial index which allows full flexibility to allocate any PRB inthe DL system bandwidth within the required set.

The configured PRB set consists then of a set of SCCEs numberedsequentially based on the total number of SCCEs forming the PRB set.Furthermore, since multiple SPDCCH candidates can be configured withinthe same SPDCCH PRB set, different UEs should be able to share the samePRB set. Hence, the eNB obtains enough flexibility for multiplexing theSDCI of several UEs.

Problems with Existing Solutions

An efficient design still needs to be defined for the SCCE to SREGmapping in STTI operation. For that, the demodulation schemes forSPDCCH, i.e. either CRS-based or DMRS-based, need to be considered aswell as if a localized or distributed configuration is required.

In many of the embodiments disclosed herein, it is assumed that SPDCCHparameters have been pre-configured over higher layer signaling such asRRC for LTE or pre-defined, e.g. in the LTE specifications. TypicalSPDCCH parameters are the number of time resources, e.g. OFDM symbols,aggregation levels and nominal number of candidates per aggregationlevel used for SPDCCH transmission to be monitored by UE. As an examplefor the Short TTI (STTI) operation, the pre-configured or pre-definednumber of OFDM symbols (OS) for SPDCCH can be 1, 2, or 3 in thefollowing description. As an example for STTI operation, the aggregationlevels can be considered up to eight (i.e. AL 1, 2, 4, and 8). Besides,a UE is configured at least in one SPDCCH RB set containing a number ofSCCE. As examples in some embodiments of this disclosure, SPDCCH RB setsare considered with a size of 8 SCCE and 4 SCCE.

SCCE to SREG Mapping for CRS-Based SPDCCH

SPDCCH RB set is configured based on CRS or DMRS demodulation. Based onthis, a CRS-based SPDCCH RB set configured with more than 1 symbol, thedistributed and localized mapping is based on a frequency-firsttime-second SCCE to SREG mapping. Besides, as described before, an SCCEhas been defined to be composed by four SREG, i.e. 1 SCCE=4 SREG.

Therefore, to define the SCCE to SREG mapping, as one embodiment, theSREG indexing for CRS-based SPDCCH, i.e. how the SREG which can beformed in the UE's SPDCCH RB set are numbered, are also defined asfrequency-first time-second, for both 1 OFDM symbol (os) and 2 osCRS-based SPDCCH.

For that, the SREGs are numbered in an ascended frequency-firsttime-second manner from 0 to N_(sREG) _(tot) −1 within a CRS-basedSPDCCH RB set. N_(sREG) _(tot) is the total number of SREGs that can beformed in the SPDCCH RB set. Besides, to achieve high frequencydiversity for a CRS-based SPDCCH, the distributed CRS-basedconfiguration is done at SREG level. For that, the SREG corresponding toan SCCE are selected in a distributed manner along the SPDCCH RB set aswell as only from 1 OFDM symbol.

FIG. 7 and FIG. 8 show the aforementioned SREG indexing definition andthe distributed and localized SCCE to SREG mapping definition for 1osand 2os CRS-based SPDCCH RB set, respectively. Here, an example of aSPDCCH RB set size of 4 SCCEs is depicted.

According to some embodiments, the following is defined for CRS-basedSPDCCH:

-   -   I. For the distributed SCCE to SREG mapping in 1os CRS-based        SPDCCH, the SREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are given by        the following definition:

$k + {i*\frac{N_{{sREG}_{tot}}}{N_{{sREG}\text{/}{sCCE}}}}$

-   -    Where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE        in the SPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/SCCE)−1, N_(sCCE/OS)        is the total number of SREGs in the SPDCCH RB set, and        N_(sREG/sCCE) is the number of SREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE        for CRS-based SPDCCH.    -   II. For the SREG based distributed mapping in 2os CRS-based        SPDCCH, the SREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are given by        the following definition:

${k\; {mod}\; N_{{sCCE}\text{/}{OS}}} + {\left\lfloor \frac{k}{N_{{sCCE}\text{/}{OS}}} \right\rfloor*N_{\frac{sREG}{OS}}} + {i*N_{{sCCE}\text{/}{OS}}}$

-   -    Where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE        in the SPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/SCCE)−1, N_(sCCE/OS)        is the number of SCCEs per OFDM symbol within the SPDCCH RB set,        i.e.

$N_{{sCCE}\text{/}{OS}} = {\frac{N_{{sREG}\text{/}{OS}}}{N_{{sREG}\text{/}{sCCE}}}.}$

N_(sREG/OS) is the number of SREGs per OFDM symbol and N_(sREG/sCCE) isthe number of SREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE for CRS-based SPDCCH.

-   -   III. For the SREG based localized mapping within 1os and 2os        CRS-based SPDCCH, the SREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are        given by the following definition:

k*N_(sREG/sCCE)+i

-   -    Where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE        in the SPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)−1, and        N_(sREG/sCCE) is the number of SREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE        for CRS-based SPDCCH

SCCE to SREG Mapping for DMRS-Based SPDCCH

As described above, a UE can be configured to monitor up to two SPDCCHRB sets per STTI. Each SPDCCH RB set is configured based on CRS or DMRSdemodulation. Based on this, a DMRS-based SPDCCH RB set configured withmore than 1 symbol, the distributed and localized mapping is based on atime-first frequency-second mapping. Besides, as described before, forDMRS-based SPDCCH, some options have been considered for the SCCEdefinition based on the STTI length. For 2os STTI and 1-slot STTI, anSCCE might be defined to be composed by four SREG, i.e. 1 SCCE=4 SREG.For the case of 3os STTI length, an SCCE might be defined to be composedby six SREG, i.e. 1 SCCE=6 SREG. This is assuming that DMRS bundlingover 2 PRBs is always applied for DMRS-based SPDCCH.

Therefore, to define the SCCE to SREG mapping, as one embodiment, theSREG indexing for DMRS-based SPDCCH, i.e. how the SREG which can beformed in the UE's SPDCCH RB set are numbered, are also defined astime-first frequency-second, for both 1 OFDM symbol (os) and 2osCRS-based SPDCCH.

For that, the SREGs are numbered in an ascended time-firstfrequency-second manner from 0 to N_(SREG_tot)−1 within a DMRS-basedSPDCCH RB set. N_(SREG_tot) is the total number of SREGs that can beformed in the SPDCCH RB set.

Furthermore, assuming that DMRS bundling over 2 PRBs is always appliedfor DMRS-based, 4 SREG/SCCE and 6 SREG/SCCE are then considered for 2osand 3os DMRS-based SPDCCH, respectively. Based on this, an SCCE is builtby those two bundled PRB, i.e. by the SREGs formed within the bundledPRBs. Thereby, an SCCE is built always with a localized SREGconfiguration.

FIG. 9 shows the aforementioned SREG indexing definition and the SCCE toSREG mapping definition for 2os and 3os DMRS-based SPDCCH RB set. Here,an example of a SPDCCH RB set size of 4 SCCEs is depicted. Since DMRSbundling over 2 PRB is assumed, the physical RBs building an SCCE are,therefore, two consecutive PRBs in frequency domain.

Hence, as an embodiment, the following is defined for DMRS-based SPDCCH:

-   -   I. For the SCCE to SREG mapping in 2os and 3os DMRS-based        SPDCCH, the SREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are given by        the following definition:

k*N_(sREG/sCCE)+i

Where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)−1 and N_(sREG/sCCE) is thenumber of SREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE for 2os DMRS-based SPDCCH and6 SREG/SCCE for 3os DMRS-based SPDCCH.

Distributed DMRS-Based SPDCCH Configuration

As described, an SCCE is built always with a localized SREGconfiguration. Therefore, a distributed DMRS-based SPDCCH configurationneeds to be done at SCCE level. This means that the SCCE correspondingto an SPDCCH candidate are selected in a distributed manner in theSPDCCH RB set. Based on this, it becomes obvious that a distributedDMRS-based configuration is defined only at aggregation levels higherthan one, i.e. SPDCCH candidates at aggregation levels containing morethan one SCCE.

Hence, as an embodiment, for an aggregation level higher than one, theSCCEs corresponding to a distributed DMRS-based SPDCCH candidate mwithin the UE's SPDCCH RB set is defined as follows:

$Y_{p,k}^{L} + m + {i*\frac{N_{sCCE}}{L}}$

where Y_(p,k) ^(L) is a UE's SCCE starting offset configured by higherlayer signaling, i=0, . . . , L−1. L is the aggregation level and ishigher than one, N_(sCCE) is the total number of SCCEs in the SPDCCH RBset, and m=0, . . . , M^(L)−1. M^(L) is the number of SPDCCH candidatesper aggregation level L.

FIG. 10 depicts an example of a UE configured with an SPDCCH RB set of 8SCCE size, aggregation levels (AL) {2, 4} and the number of candidatesper AL M^(L)={2, 2}. The resulting SPDCCH candidates {A, B} representAL2 candidates, wherein A corresponds to candidate m=0, and B to m=1.Likewise, {C, D} represent AL4 candidates. For instance, as shown below,AL2 candidate A is formed by selecting in a distributed manner SCCE0 andSCCE4. On the same way, AL4 candidate C is formed by selecting in adistributed manner SCCE0, SCCE2, SCCE4 and SCCE6.

FIG. 11 illustrates a method of operating a UE, according to someembodiments. The UE receives a communication from a base station (step1100). The UE also determines a mapping between one or more SCCE andcorresponding SREG for the communication from the base station (step1102). The UE processes the communication from the base station based onthe mapping between one or more SCCE and corresponding SREG for thecommunication from the base station (step 1104).

FIG. 12 illustrates a method of operating a base station, according tosome embodiments. The base station determines a mapping between one ormore SCCE and corresponding SREG for a communication to a UE (step1200). The base station transmits a communication to the UE based on themapping between the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG (step1202).

Although the subject matter described herein may be implemented in anyappropriate type of system using any suitable components, theembodiments disclosed herein are described in relation to a wirelessnetwork, such as the example wireless network illustrated in FIG. 13.For simplicity, the wireless network of FIG. 13 only depicts network1306, network nodes 1360 and 1360 b, and WDs 1310, 1310 b, and 1310 c.In practice, a wireless network may further include any additionalelements suitable to support communication between wireless devices orbetween a wireless device and another communication device, such as alandline telephone, a service provider, or any other network node or enddevice. Of the illustrated components, network node 1360 and wirelessdevice (WD) 1310 are depicted with additional detail. The wirelessnetwork may provide communication and other types of services to one ormore wireless devices to facilitate the wireless devices' access toand/or use of the services provided by, or via, the wireless network.

The wireless network may comprise and/or interface with any type ofcommunication, telecommunication, data, cellular, and/or radio networkor other similar type of system. In some embodiments, the wirelessnetwork may be configured to operate according to specific standards orother types of predefined rules or procedures. Thus, particularembodiments of the wireless network may implement communicationstandards, such as Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM),Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), Long Term Evolution(LTE), and/or other suitable 2G, 3G, 4G, or 5G standards; wireless localarea network (WLAN) standards, such as the IEEE 802.11 standards; and/orany other appropriate wireless communication standard, such as theWorldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax), Bluetooth,Z-Wave and/or ZigBee standards.

Network 1306 may comprise one or more backhaul networks, core networks,IP networks, public switched telephone networks (PSTNs), packet datanetworks, optical networks, wide-area networks (WANs), local areanetworks (LANs), wireless local area networks (WLANs), wired networks,wireless networks, metropolitan area networks, and other networks toenable communication between devices.

Network node 1360 and WD 1310 comprise various components described inmore detail below. These components work together in order to providenetwork node and/or wireless device functionality, such as providingwireless connections in a wireless network. In different embodiments,the wireless network may comprise any number of wired or wirelessnetworks, network nodes, base stations, controllers, wireless devices,relay stations, and/or any other components or systems that mayfacilitate or participate in the communication of data and/or signalswhether via wired or wireless connections.

As used herein, network node refers to equipment capable, configured,arranged and/or operable to communicate directly or indirectly with awireless device and/or with other network nodes or equipment in thewireless network to enable and/or provide wireless access to thewireless device and/or to perform other functions (e.g., administration)in the wireless network. Examples of network nodes include, but are notlimited to, access points (APs) (e.g., radio access points), basestations (BSs) (e.g., radio base stations, Node Bs, evolved Node Bs(eNBs) and NR NodeBs (gNBs)). Base stations may be categorized based onthe amount of coverage they provide (or, stated differently, theirtransmit power level) and may then also be referred to as femto basestations, pico base stations, micro base stations, or macro basestations. A base station may be a relay node or a relay donor nodecontrolling a relay. A network node may also include one or more (orall) parts of a distributed radio base station such as centralizeddigital units and/or remote radio units (RRUs), sometimes referred to asRemote Radio Heads (RRHs). Such remote radio units may or may not beintegrated with an antenna as an antenna integrated radio. Parts of adistributed radio base station may also be referred to as nodes in adistributed antenna system (DAS). Yet further examples of network nodesinclude multi-standard radio (MSR) equipment such as MSR BSs, networkcontrollers such as radio network controllers (RNCs) or base stationcontrollers (BSCs), base transceiver stations (BTSs), transmissionpoints, transmission nodes, multi-cell/multicast coordination entities(MCEs), core network nodes (e.g., MSCs, MMEs), O&M nodes, OSS nodes, SONnodes, positioning nodes (e.g., E-SMLCs), and/or MDTs. As anotherexample, a network node may be a virtual network node as described inmore detail below. More generally, however, network nodes may representany suitable device (or group of devices) capable, configured, arranged,and/or operable to enable and/or provide a wireless device with accessto the wireless network or to provide some service to a wireless devicethat has accessed the wireless network.

In FIG. 13, network node 1360 includes processing circuitry 1370, devicereadable medium 1380, interface 1390, auxiliary equipment 1384, powersource 1386, power circuitry 1387, and antenna 1362. Although networknode 1360 illustrated in the example wireless network of FIG. 13 mayrepresent a device that includes the illustrated combination of hardwarecomponents, other embodiments may comprise network nodes with differentcombinations of components. It is to be understood that a network nodecomprises any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed toperform the tasks, features, functions and methods disclosed herein.Moreover, while the components of network node 1360 are depicted assingle boxes located within a larger box, or nested within multipleboxes, in practice, a network node may comprise multiple differentphysical components that make up a single illustrated component (e.g.,device readable medium 1380 may comprise multiple separate hard drivesas well as multiple RAM modules).

Similarly, network node 1360 may be composed of multiple physicallyseparate components (e.g., a NodeB component and a RNC component, or aBTS component and a BSC component, etc.), which may each have their ownrespective components. In certain scenarios in which network node 1360comprises multiple separate components (e.g., BTS and BSC components),one or more of the separate components may be shared among severalnetwork nodes. For example, a single RNC may control multiple NodeB's.In such a scenario, each unique NodeB and RNC pair, may in someinstances be considered a single separate network node. In someembodiments, network node 1360 may be configured to support multipleradio access technologies (RATs). In such embodiments, some componentsmay be duplicated (e.g., separate device readable medium 1380 for thedifferent RATs) and some components may be reused (e.g., the sameantenna 1362 may be shared by the RATs). Network node 1360 may alsoinclude multiple sets of the various illustrated components fordifferent wireless technologies integrated into network node 1360, suchas, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi, or Bluetooth wirelesstechnologies. These wireless technologies may be integrated into thesame or different chip or set of chips and other components withinnetwork node 1360.

Processing circuitry 1370 is configured to perform any determining,calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations)described herein as being provided by a network node. These operationsperformed by processing circuitry 1370 may include processinginformation obtained by processing circuitry 1370 by, for example,converting the obtained information into other information, comparingthe obtained information or converted information to information storedin the network node, and/or performing one or more operations based onthe obtained information or converted information, and as a result ofsaid processing making a determination.

Processing circuitry 1370 may comprise a combination of one or more of amicroprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit,digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, fieldprogrammable gate array, or any other suitable computing device,resource, or combination of hardware, software and/or encoded logicoperable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other networknode 1360 components, such as device readable medium 1380, network node1360 functionality. For example, processing circuitry 1370 may executeinstructions stored in device readable medium 1380 or in memory withinprocessing circuitry 1370. Such functionality may include providing anyof the various wireless features, functions, or benefits discussedherein. In some embodiments, processing circuitry 1370 may include asystem on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, processing circuitry 1370 may include one or moreof radio frequency (RF) transceiver circuitry 1372 and basebandprocessing circuitry 1374. In some embodiments, radio frequency (RF)transceiver circuitry 1372 and baseband processing circuitry 1374 may beon separate chips (or sets of chips), boards, or units, such as radiounits and digital units. In alternative embodiments, part or all of RFtransceiver circuitry 1372 and baseband processing circuitry 1374 may beon the same chip or set of chips, boards, or units

In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality describedherein as being provided by a network node, base station, eNB or othersuch network device may be performed by processing circuitry 1370executing instructions stored on device readable medium 1380 or memorywithin processing circuitry 1370. In alternative embodiments, some orall of the functionality may be provided by processing circuitry 1370without executing instructions stored on a separate or discrete devicereadable medium, such as in a hard-wired manner. In any of thoseembodiments, whether executing instructions stored on a device readablestorage medium or not, processing circuitry 1370 can be configured toperform the described functionality. The benefits provided by suchfunctionality are not limited to processing circuitry 1370 alone or toother components of network node 1360, but are enjoyed by network node1360 as a whole, and/or by end users and the wireless network generally.

Device readable medium 1380 may comprise any form of volatile ornon-volatile computer readable memory including, without limitation,persistent storage, solid-state memory, remotely mounted memory,magnetic media, optical media, random access memory (RAM), read-onlymemory (ROM), mass storage media (for example, a hard disk), removablestorage media (for example, a flash drive, a Compact Disk (CD) or aDigital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or any other volatile or non-volatile,non-transitory device readable and/or computer-executable memory devicesthat store information, data, and/or instructions that may be used byprocessing circuitry 1370. Device readable medium 1380 may store anysuitable instructions, data or information, including a computerprogram, software, an application including one or more of logic, rules,code, tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executedby processing circuitry 1370 and, utilized by network node 1360. Devicereadable medium 1380 may be used to store any calculations made byprocessing circuitry 1370 and/or any data received via interface 1390.In some embodiments, processing circuitry 1370 and device readablemedium 1380 may be considered to be integrated.

Interface 1390 is used in the wired or wireless communication ofsignalling and/or data between network node 1360, network 1306, and/orWDs 1310. As illustrated, interface 1390 comprises port(s)/terminal(s)1394 to send and receive data, for example to and from network 1306 overa wired connection. Interface 1390 also includes radio front endcircuitry 1392 that may be coupled to, or in certain embodiments a partof, antenna 1362. Radio front end circuitry 1392 comprises filters 1398and amplifiers 1396. Radio front end circuitry 1392 may be connected toantenna 1362 and processing circuitry 1370. Radio front end circuitrymay be configured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1362and processing circuitry 1370. Radio front end circuitry 1392 mayreceive digital data that is to be sent out to other network nodes orWDs via a wireless connection. Radio front end circuitry 1392 mayconvert the digital data into a radio signal having the appropriatechannel and bandwidth parameters using a combination of filters 1398and/or amplifiers 1396. The radio signal may then be transmitted viaantenna 1362. Similarly, when receiving data, antenna 1362 may collectradio signals which are then converted into digital data by radio frontend circuitry 1392. The digital data may be passed to processingcircuitry 1370. In other embodiments, the interface may comprisedifferent components and/or different combinations of components.

In certain alternative embodiments, network node 1360 may not includeseparate radio front end circuitry 1392, instead, processing circuitry1370 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may be connected toantenna 1362 without separate radio front end circuitry 1392. Similarly,in some embodiments, all or some of RF transceiver circuitry 1372 may beconsidered a part of interface 1390. In still other embodiments,interface 1390 may include one or more ports or terminals 1394, radiofront end circuitry 1392, and RF transceiver circuitry 1372, as part ofa radio unit (not shown), and interface 1390 may communicate withbaseband processing circuitry 1374, which is part of a digital unit (notshown).

Antenna 1362 may include one or more antennas, or antenna arrays,configured to send and/or receive wireless signals. Antenna 1362 may becoupled to radio front end circuitry 1390 and may be any type of antennacapable of transmitting and receiving data and/or signals wirelessly. Insome embodiments, antenna 1362 may comprise one or moreomni-directional, sector or panel antennas operable to transmit/receiveradio signals between, for example, 2 GHz and 66 GHz. Anomni-directional antenna may be used to transmit/receive radio signalsin any direction, a sector antenna may be used to transmit/receive radiosignals from devices within a particular area, and a panel antenna maybe a line of sight antenna used to transmit/receive radio signals in arelatively straight line. In some instances, the use of more than oneantenna may be referred to as MIMO. In certain embodiments, antenna 1362may be separate from network node 1360 and may be connectable to networknode 1360 through an interface or port.

Antenna 1362, interface 1390, and/or processing circuitry 1370 may beconfigured to perform any receiving operations and/or certain obtainingoperations described herein as being performed by a network node. Anyinformation, data and/or signals may be received from a wireless device,another network node and/or any other network equipment. Similarly,antenna 1362, interface 1390, and/or processing circuitry 1370 may beconfigured to perform any transmitting operations described herein asbeing performed by a network node. Any information, data and/or signalsmay be transmitted to a wireless device, another network node and/or anyother network equipment.

Power circuitry 1387 may comprise, or be coupled to, power managementcircuitry and is configured to supply the components of network node1360 with power for performing the functionality described herein. Powercircuitry 1387 may receive power from power source 1386. Power source1386 and/or power circuitry 1387 may be configured to provide power tothe various components of network node 1360 in a form suitable for therespective components (e.g., at a voltage and current level needed foreach respective component). Power source 1386 may either be included in,or external to, power circuitry 1387 and/or network node 1360. Forexample, network node 1360 may be connectable to an external powersource (e.g., an electricity outlet) via an input circuitry or interfacesuch as an electrical cable, whereby the external power source suppliespower to power circuitry 1387. As a further example, power source 1386may comprise a source of power in the form of a battery or battery packwhich is connected to, or integrated in, power circuitry 1387. Thebattery may provide backup power should the external power source fail.Other types of power sources, such as photovoltaic devices, may also beused.

Alternative embodiments of network node 1360 may include additionalcomponents beyond those shown in FIG. 13 that may be responsible forproviding certain aspects of the network node's functionality, includingany of the functionality described herein and/or any functionalitynecessary to support the subject matter described herein. For example,network node 1360 may include user interface equipment to allow input ofinformation into network node 1360 and to allow output of informationfrom network node 1360. This may allow a user to perform diagnostic,maintenance, repair, and other administrative functions for network node1360.

As used herein, wireless device (WD) refers to a device capable,configured, arranged and/or operable to communicate wirelessly withnetwork nodes and/or other wireless devices. Unless otherwise noted, theterm WD may be used interchangeably herein with user equipment (UE).Communicating wirelessly may involve transmitting and/or receivingwireless signals using electromagnetic waves, radio waves, infraredwaves, and/or other types of signals suitable for conveying informationthrough air. In some embodiments, a WD may be configured to transmitand/or receive information without direct human interaction. Forinstance, a WD may be designed to transmit information to a network on apredetermined schedule, when triggered by an internal or external event,or in response to requests from the network. Examples of a WD include,but are not limited to, a smart phone, a mobile phone, a cell phone, avoice over IP (VoIP) phone, a wireless local loop phone, a desktopcomputer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless cameras, agaming console or device, a music storage device, a playback appliance,a wearable terminal device, a wireless endpoint, a mobile station, atablet, a laptop, a laptop-embedded equipment (LEE), a laptop-mountedequipment (LME), a smart device, a wireless customer-premise equipment(CPE), a vehicle-mounted wireless terminal device, etc. A WD may supportdevice-to-device (D2D) communication, for example by implementing a 3GPPstandard for sidelink communication, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V),vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I), vehicle-to-everything (V2X) and may inthis case be referred to as a D2D communication device. As yet anotherspecific example, in an Internet of Things (IoT) scenario, a WD mayrepresent a machine or other device that performs monitoring and/ormeasurements, and transmits the results of such monitoring and/ormeasurements to another WD and/or a network node. The WD may in thiscase be a machine-to-machine (M2M) device, which may in a 3GPP contextbe referred to as an MTC device. As one particular example, the WD maybe a UE implementing the 3GPP narrow band internet of things (NB-IoT)standard. Particular examples of such machines or devices are sensors,metering devices such as power meters, industrial machinery, or home orpersonal appliances (e.g. refrigerators, televisions, etc.) personalwearables (e.g., watches, fitness trackers, etc.). In other scenarios, aWD may represent a vehicle or other equipment that is capable ofmonitoring and/or reporting on its operational status or other functionsassociated with its operation. A WD as described above may represent theendpoint of a wireless connection, in which case the device may bereferred to as a wireless terminal. Furthermore, a WD as described abovemay be mobile, in which case it may also be referred to as a mobiledevice or a mobile terminal.

As illustrated, wireless device 1310 includes antenna 1311, interface1314, processing circuitry 1320, device readable medium 1330, userinterface equipment 1332, auxiliary equipment 1334, power source 1336and power circuitry 1337. WD 1310 may include multiple sets of one ormore of the illustrated components for different wireless technologiessupported by WD 1310, such as, for example, GSM, WCDMA, LTE, NR, WiFi,WiMAX, or Bluetooth wireless technologies, just to mention a few. Thesewireless technologies may be integrated into the same or different chipsor set of chips as other components within WD 1310.

Antenna 1311 may include one or more antennas or antenna arrays,configured to send and/or receive wireless signals, and is connected tointerface 1314. In certain alternative embodiments, antenna 1311 may beseparate from WD 1310 and be connectable to WD 1310 through an interfaceor port. Antenna 1311, interface 1314, and/or processing circuitry 1320may be configured to perform any receiving or transmitting operationsdescribed herein as being performed by a WD. Any information, dataand/or signals may be received from a network node and/or another WD. Insome embodiments, radio front end circuitry and/or antenna 1311 may beconsidered an interface.

As illustrated, interface 1314 comprises radio front end circuitry 1312and antenna 1311. Radio front end circuitry 1312 comprise one or morefilters 1318 and amplifiers 1316. Radio front end circuitry 1314 isconnected to antenna 1311 and processing circuitry 1320, and isconfigured to condition signals communicated between antenna 1311 andprocessing circuitry 1320. Radio front end circuitry 1312 may be coupledto or a part of antenna 1311. In some embodiments, WD 1310 may notinclude separate radio front end circuitry 1312; rather, processingcircuitry 1320 may comprise radio front end circuitry and may beconnected to antenna 1311. Similarly, in some embodiments, some or allof RF transceiver circuitry 1322 may be considered a part of interface1314. Radio front end circuitry 1312 may receive digital data that is tobe sent out to other network nodes or WDs via a wireless connection.Radio front end circuitry 1312 may convert the digital data into a radiosignal having the appropriate channel and bandwidth parameters using acombination of filters 1318 and/or amplifiers 1316. The radio signal maythen be transmitted via antenna 1311. Similarly, when receiving data,antenna 1311 may collect radio signals which are then converted intodigital data by radio front end circuitry 1312. The digital data may bepassed to processing circuitry 1320. In other embodiments, the interfacemay comprise different components and/or different combinations ofcomponents.

Processing circuitry 1320 may comprise a combination of one or more of amicroprocessor, controller, microcontroller, central processing unit,digital signal processor, application-specific integrated circuit, fieldprogrammable gate array, or any other suitable computing device,resource, or combination of hardware, software, and/or encoded logicoperable to provide, either alone or in conjunction with other WD 1310components, such as device readable medium 1330, WD 1310 functionality.Such functionality may include providing any of the various wirelessfeatures or benefits discussed herein. For example, processing circuitry1320 may execute instructions stored in device readable medium 1330 orin memory within processing circuitry 1320 to provide the functionalitydisclosed herein.

As illustrated, processing circuitry 1320 includes one or more of RFtransceiver circuitry 1322, baseband processing circuitry 1324, andapplication processing circuitry 1326. In other embodiments, theprocessing circuitry may comprise different components and/or differentcombinations of components. In certain embodiments processing circuitry1320 of WD 1310 may comprise a SOC. In some embodiments, RF transceivercircuitry 1322, baseband processing circuitry 1324, and applicationprocessing circuitry 1326 may be on separate chips or sets of chips. Inalternative embodiments, part or all of baseband processing circuitry1324 and application processing circuitry 1326 may be combined into onechip or set of chips, and RF transceiver circuitry 1322 may be on aseparate chip or set of chips. In still alternative embodiments, part orall of RF transceiver circuitry 1322 and baseband processing circuitry1324 may be on the same chip or set of chips, and application processingcircuitry 1326 may be on a separate chip or set of chips. In yet otheralternative embodiments, part or all of RF transceiver circuitry 1322,baseband processing circuitry 1324, and application processing circuitry1326 may be combined in the same chip or set of chips. In someembodiments, RF transceiver circuitry 1322 may be a part of interface1314. RF transceiver circuitry 1322 may condition RF signals forprocessing circuitry 1320.

In certain embodiments, some or all of the functionality describedherein as being performed by a WD may be provided by processingcircuitry 1320 executing instructions stored on device readable medium1330, which in certain embodiments may be a computer-readable storagemedium. In alternative embodiments, some or all of the functionality maybe provided by processing circuitry 1320 without executing instructionsstored on a separate or discrete device readable storage medium, such asin a hard-wired manner. In any of those particular embodiments, whetherexecuting instructions stored on a device readable storage medium ornot, processing circuitry 1320 can be configured to perform thedescribed functionality. The benefits provided by such functionality arenot limited to processing circuitry 1320 alone or to other components ofWD 1310, but are enjoyed by WD 1310 as a whole, and/or by end users andthe wireless network generally.

Processing circuitry 1320 may be configured to perform any determining,calculating, or similar operations (e.g., certain obtaining operations)described herein as being performed by a WD. These operations, asperformed by processing circuitry 1320, may include processinginformation obtained by processing circuitry 1320 by, for example,converting the obtained information into other information, comparingthe obtained information or converted information to information storedby WD 1310, and/or performing one or more operations based on theobtained information or converted information, and as a result of saidprocessing making a determination.

Device readable medium 1330 may be operable to store a computer program,software, an application including one or more of logic, rules, code,tables, etc. and/or other instructions capable of being executed byprocessing circuitry 1320. Device readable medium 1330 may includecomputer memory (e.g., Random Access Memory (RAM) or Read Only Memory(ROM)), mass storage media (e.g., a hard disk), removable storage media(e.g., a Compact Disk (CD) or a Digital Video Disk (DVD)), and/or anyother volatile or non-volatile, non-transitory device readable and/orcomputer executable memory devices that store information, data, and/orinstructions that may be used by processing circuitry 1320. In someembodiments, processing circuitry 1320 and device readable medium 1330may be considered to be integrated.

User interface equipment 1332 may provide components that allow for ahuman user to interact with WD 1310. Such interaction may be of manyforms, such as visual, audial, tactile, etc. User interface equipment1332 may be operable to produce output to the user and to allow the userto provide input to WD 1310. The type of interaction may vary dependingon the type of user interface equipment 1332 installed in WD 1310. Forexample, if WD 1310 is a smart phone, the interaction may be via a touchscreen; if WD 1310 is a smart meter, the interaction may be through ascreen that provides usage (e.g., the number of gallons used) or aspeaker that provides an audible alert (e.g., if smoke is detected).User interface equipment 1332 may include input interfaces, devices andcircuits, and output interfaces, devices and circuits. User interfaceequipment 1332 is configured to allow input of information into WD 1310,and is connected to processing circuitry 1320 to allow processingcircuitry 1320 to process the input information. User interfaceequipment 1332 may include, for example, a microphone, a proximity orother sensor, keys/buttons, a touch display, one or more cameras, a USBport, or other input circuitry. User interface equipment 1332 is alsoconfigured to allow output of information from WD 1310, and to allowprocessing circuitry 1320 to output information from WD 1310. Userinterface equipment 1332 may include, for example, a speaker, a display,vibrating circuitry, a USB port, a headphone interface, or other outputcircuitry. Using one or more input and output interfaces, devices, andcircuits, of user interface equipment 1332, WD 1310 may communicate withend users and/or the wireless network, and allow them to benefit fromthe functionality described herein.

Auxiliary equipment 1334 is operable to provide more specificfunctionality which may not be generally performed by WDs. This maycomprise specialized sensors for doing measurements for variouspurposes, interfaces for additional types of communication such as wiredcommunications etc. The inclusion and type of components of auxiliaryequipment 1334 may vary depending on the embodiment and/or scenario.

Power source 1336 may, in some embodiments, be in the form of a batteryor battery pack. Other types of power sources, such as an external powersource (e.g., an electricity outlet), photovoltaic devices or powercells, may also be used. WD 1310 may further comprise power circuitry1337 for delivering power from power source 1336 to the various parts ofWD 1310 which need power from power source 1336 to carry out anyfunctionality described or indicated herein. Power circuitry 1337 may incertain embodiments comprise power management circuitry. Power circuitry1337 may additionally or alternatively be operable to receive power froman external power source; in which case WD 1310 may be connectable tothe external power source (such as an electricity outlet) via inputcircuitry or an interface such as an electrical power cable. Powercircuitry 1337 may also in certain embodiments be operable to deliverpower from an external power source to power source 1336. This may be,for example, for the charging of power source 1336. Power circuitry 1337may perform any formatting, converting, or other modification to thepower from power source 1336 to make the power suitable for therespective components of WD 1310 to which power is supplied.

FIG. 14 illustrates one embodiment of a UE in accordance with variousaspects described herein. As used herein, a user equipment or UE may notnecessarily have a user in the sense of a human user who owns and/oroperates the relevant device. Instead, a UE may represent a device thatis intended for sale to, or operation by, a human user but which maynot, or which may not initially, be associated with a specific humanuser (e.g., a smart sprinkler controller). Alternatively, a UE mayrepresent a device that is not intended for sale to, or operation by, anend user but which may be associated with or operated for the benefit ofa user (e.g., a smart power meter). UE 14200 may be any UE identified bythe 3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), including a NB-IoT UE,a machine type communication (MTC) UE, and/or an enhanced MTC (eMTC) UE.UE 1400, as illustrated in FIG. 14, is one example of a WD configuredfor communication in accordance with one or more communication standardspromulgated by the 3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), such as3GPP's GSM, UMTS, LTE, and/or 5G standards. As mentioned previously, theterm WD and UE may be used interchangeable. Accordingly, although FIG.14 is a UE, the components discussed herein are equally applicable to aWD, and vice-versa.

In FIG. 14, UE 1400 includes processing circuitry 1401 that isoperatively coupled to input/output interface 1405, radio frequency (RF)interface 1409, network connection interface 1411, memory 1415 includingrandom access memory (RAM) 1417, read-only memory (ROM) 1419, andstorage medium 1421 or the like, communication subsystem 1431, powersource 1433, and/or any other component, or any combination thereof.Storage medium 1421 includes operating system 1423, application program1425, and data 1427. In other embodiments, storage medium 1421 mayinclude other similar types of information. Certain UEs may utilize allof the components shown in FIG. 14, or only a subset of the components.The level of integration between the components may vary from one UE toanother UE. Further, certain UEs may contain multiple instances of acomponent, such as multiple processors, memories, transceivers,transmitters, receivers, etc.

In FIG. 14, processing circuitry 1401 may be configured to processcomputer instructions and data. Processing circuitry 1401 may beconfigured to implement any sequential state machine operative toexecute machine instructions stored as machine-readable computerprograms in the memory, such as one or more hardware-implemented statemachines (e.g., in discrete logic, FPGA, ASIC, etc.); programmable logictogether with appropriate firmware; one or more stored program,general-purpose processors, such as a microprocessor or Digital SignalProcessor (DSP), together with appropriate software; or any combinationof the above. For example, the processing circuitry 1401 may include twocentral processing units (CPUs). Data may be information in a formsuitable for use by a computer.

In the depicted embodiment, input/output interface 1405 may beconfigured to provide a communication interface to an input device,output device, or input and output device. UE 1400 may be configured touse an output device via input/output interface 1405. An output devicemay use the same type of interface port as an input device. For example,a USB port may be used to provide input to and output from UE 1400. Theoutput device may be a speaker, a sound card, a video card, a display, amonitor, a printer, an actuator, an emitter, a smartcard, another outputdevice, or any combination thereof. UE 1400 may be configured to use aninput device via input/output interface 1405 to allow a user to captureinformation into UE 1400. The input device may include a touch-sensitiveor presence-sensitive display, a camera (e.g., a digital camera, adigital video camera, a web camera, etc.), a microphone, a sensor, amouse, a trackball, a directional pad, a trackpad, a scroll wheel, asmartcard, and the like. The presence-sensitive display may include acapacitive or resistive touch sensor to sense input from a user. Asensor may be, for instance, an accelerometer, a gyroscope, a tiltsensor, a force sensor, a magnetometer, an optical sensor, a proximitysensor, another like sensor, or any combination thereof. For example,the input device may be an accelerometer, a magnetometer, a digitalcamera, a microphone, and an optical sensor.

In FIG. 14, RF interface 1409 may be configured to provide acommunication interface to RF components such as a transmitter, areceiver, and an antenna. Network connection interface 1411 may beconfigured to provide a communication interface to network 1443 a.Network 1443 a may encompass wired and/or wireless networks such as alocal-area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN), a computer network,a wireless network, a telecommunications network, another like networkor any combination thereof. For example, network 1443 a may comprise aWi-Fi network. Network connection interface 1411 may be configured toinclude a receiver and a transmitter interface used to communicate withone or more other devices over a communication network according to oneor more communication protocols, such as Ethernet, TCP/IP, SONET, ATM,or the like. Network connection interface 1411 may implement receiverand transmitter functionality appropriate to the communication networklinks (e.g., optical, electrical, and the like). The transmitter andreceiver functions may share circuit components, software or firmware,or alternatively may be implemented separately.

RAM 1417 may be configured to interface via bus 1402 to processingcircuitry 1401 to provide storage or caching of data or computerinstructions during the execution of software programs such as theoperating system, application programs, and device drivers. ROM 1419 maybe configured to provide computer instructions or data to processingcircuitry 1401. For example, ROM 1419 may be configured to storeinvariant low-level system code or data for basic system functions suchas basic input and output (I/O), startup, or reception of keystrokesfrom a keyboard that are stored in a non-volatile memory. Storage medium1421 may be configured to include memory such as RAM, ROM, programmableread-only memory (PROM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), magneticdisks, optical disks, floppy disks, hard disks, removable cartridges, orflash drives. In one example, storage medium 1421 may be configured toinclude operating system 1423, application program 1425 such as a webbrowser application, a widget or gadget engine or another application,and data file 1427. Storage medium 1421 may store, for use by UE 1400,any of a variety of various operating systems or combinations ofoperating systems.

Storage medium 1421 may be configured to include a number of physicaldrive units, such as redundant array of independent disks (RAID), floppydisk drive, flash memory, USB flash drive, external hard disk drive,thumb drive, pen drive, key drive, high-density digital versatile disc(HD-DVD) optical disc drive, internal hard disk drive, Blu-Ray opticaldisc drive, holographic digital data storage (HDDS) optical disc drive,external mini-dual in-line memory module (DIMM), synchronous dynamicrandom access memory (SDRAM), external micro-DIMM SDRAM, smartcardmemory such as a subscriber identity module or a removable user identity(SIM/RUIM) module, other memory, or any combination thereof. Storagemedium 1421 may allow UE 1400 to access computer-executableinstructions, application programs or the like, stored on transitory ornon-transitory memory media, to off-load data, or to upload data. Anarticle of manufacture, such as one utilizing a communication system maybe tangibly embodied in storage medium 1421, which may comprise a devicereadable medium.

In FIG. 14, processing circuitry 1401 may be configured to communicatewith network 1443 b using communication subsystem 1431. Network 1443 aand network 1443 b may be the same network or networks or differentnetwork or networks. Communication subsystem 1431 may be configured toinclude one or more transceivers used to communicate with network 1443b. For example, communication subsystem 1431 may be configured toinclude one or more transceivers used to communicate with one or moreremote transceivers of another device capable of wireless communicationsuch as another WD, UE, or base station of a radio access network (RAN)according to one or more communication protocols, such as IEEE 802.14,CDMA, WCDMA, GSM, LTE, UTRAN, WiMax, or the like. Each transceiver mayinclude transmitter 1433 and/or receiver 1435 to implement transmitteror receiver functionality, respectively, appropriate to the RAN links(e.g., frequency allocations and the like). Further, transmitter 1433and receiver 1435 of each transceiver may share circuit components,software or firmware, or alternatively may be implemented separately.

In the illustrated embodiment, the communication functions ofcommunication subsystem 1431 may include data communication, voicecommunication, multimedia communication, short-range communications suchas Bluetooth, near-field communication, location-based communicationsuch as the use of the global positioning system (GPS) to determine alocation, another like communication function, or any combinationthereof. For example, communication subsystem 1431 may include cellularcommunication, Wi-Fi communication, Bluetooth communication, and GPScommunication. Network 1443 b may encompass wired and/or wirelessnetworks such as a local-area network (LAN), a wide-area network (WAN),a computer network, a wireless network, a telecommunications network,another like network or any combination thereof. For example, network1443 b may be a cellular network, a Wi-Fi network, and/or a near-fieldnetwork. Power source 1413 may be configured to provide alternatingcurrent (AC) or direct current (DC) power to components of UE 1400.

The features, benefits and/or functions described herein may beimplemented in one of the components of UE 1400 or partitioned acrossmultiple components of UE 1400. Further, the features, benefits, and/orfunctions described herein may be implemented in any combination ofhardware, software or firmware. In one example, communication subsystem1431 may be configured to include any of the components describedherein. Further, processing circuitry 1401 may be configured tocommunicate with any of such components over bus 1402. In anotherexample, any of such components may be represented by programinstructions stored in memory that when executed by processing circuitry1401 perform the corresponding functions described herein. In anotherexample, the functionality of any of such components may be partitionedbetween processing circuitry 1401 and communication subsystem 1431. Inanother example, the non-computationally intensive functions of any ofsuch components may be implemented in software or firmware and thecomputationally intensive functions may be implemented in hardware.

FIG. 15 is a schematic block diagram illustrating a virtualizationenvironment 1500 in which functions implemented by some embodiments maybe virtualized. In the present context, virtualizing means creatingvirtual versions of apparatuses or devices which may includevirtualizing hardware platforms, storage devices and networkingresources. As used herein, virtualization can be applied to a node(e.g., a virtualized base station or a virtualized radio access node) orto a device (e.g., a UE, a wireless device or any other type ofcommunication device) or components thereof and relates to animplementation in which at least a portion of the functionality isimplemented as one or more virtual components (e.g., via one or moreapplications, components, functions, virtual machines or containersexecuting on one or more physical processing nodes in one or morenetworks).

In some embodiments, some or all of the functions described herein maybe implemented as virtual components executed by one or more virtualmachines implemented in one or more virtual environments 1500 hosted byone or more of hardware nodes 1530. Further, in embodiments in which thevirtual node is not a radio access node or does not require radioconnectivity (e.g., a core network node), then the network node may beentirely virtualized.

The functions may be implemented by one or more applications 1520 (whichmay alternatively be called software instances, virtual appliances,network functions, virtual nodes, virtual network functions, etc.)operative to implement some of the features, functions, and/or benefitsof some of the embodiments disclosed herein. Applications 1520 are runin virtualization environment 1500 which provides hardware 1530comprising processing circuitry 1560 and memory 1590. Memory 1590contains instructions 1595 executable by processing circuitry 1560whereby application 1520 is operative to provide one or more of thefeatures, benefits, and/or functions disclosed herein.

Virtualization environment 1500, comprises general-purpose orspecial-purpose network hardware devices 1530 comprising a set of one ormore processors or processing circuitry 1560, which may be commercialoff-the-shelf (COTS) processors, dedicated Application SpecificIntegrated Circuits (ASICs), or any other type of processing circuitryincluding digital or analog hardware components or special purposeprocessors. Each hardware device may comprise memory 1590-1 which may benon-persistent memory for temporarily storing instructions 1595 orsoftware executed by processing circuitry 1560. Each hardware device maycomprise one or more network interface controllers (NICs) 1570, alsoknown as network interface cards, which include physical networkinterface 1580. Each hardware device may also include non-transitory,persistent, machine-readable storage media 1590-2 having stored thereinsoftware 1595 and/or instructions executable by processing circuitry1560. Software 1595 may include any type of software including softwarefor instantiating one or more virtualization layers 1550 (also referredto as hypervisors), software to execute virtual machines 1540 as well assoftware allowing it to execute functions, features and/or benefitsdescribed in relation with some embodiments described herein.

Virtual machines 1540, comprise virtual processing, virtual memory,virtual networking or interface and virtual storage, and may be run by acorresponding virtualization layer 1550 or hypervisor. Differentembodiments of the instance of virtual appliance 1520 may be implementedon one or more of virtual machines 1540, and the implementations may bemade in different ways.

During operation, processing circuitry 1560 executes software 1595 toinstantiate the hypervisor or virtualization layer 1550, which maysometimes be referred to as a virtual machine monitor (VMM).Virtualization layer 1550 may present a virtual operating platform thatappears like networking hardware to virtual machine 1540.

As shown in FIG. 15, hardware 1530 may be a standalone network node withgeneric or specific components. Hardware 1530 may comprise antenna 15225and may implement some functions via virtualization. Alternatively,hardware 1530 may be part of a larger cluster of hardware (e.g. such asin a data center or customer premise equipment (CPE)) where manyhardware nodes work together and are managed via management andorchestration (MANO) 15100, which, among others, oversees lifecyclemanagement of applications 1520.

Virtualization of the hardware is in some contexts referred to asnetwork function virtualization (NFV). NFV may be used to consolidatemany network equipment types onto industry standard high volume serverhardware, physical switches, and physical storage, which can be locatedin data centers, and customer premise equipment.

In the context of NFV, virtual machine 1540 may be a softwareimplementation of a physical machine that runs programs as if they wereexecuting on a physical, non-virtualized machine. Each of virtualmachines 1540, and that part of hardware 1530 that executes that virtualmachine, be it hardware dedicated to that virtual machine and/orhardware shared by that virtual machine with others of the virtualmachines 1540, forms a separate virtual network elements (VNE).

Still in the context of NFV, Virtual Network Function (VNF) isresponsible for handling specific network functions that run in one ormore virtual machines 1540 on top of hardware networking infrastructure1530 and corresponds to application 1520 in FIG. 15.

In some embodiments, one or more radio units 15200 that each include oneor more transmitters 15220 and one or more receivers 15210 may becoupled to one or more antennas 15225. Radio units 15200 may communicatedirectly with hardware nodes 1530 via one or more appropriate networkinterfaces and may be used in combination with the virtual components toprovide a virtual node with radio capabilities, such as a radio accessnode or a base station.

In some embodiments, some signalling can be effected with the use ofcontrol system 15230 which may alternatively be used for communicationbetween the hardware nodes 1530 and radio units 15200.

With reference to FIG. 16, in accordance with an embodiment, acommunication system includes telecommunication network 1610, such as a3GPP-type cellular network, which comprises access network 1611, such asa radio access network, and core network 1614. Access network 1611comprises a plurality of base stations 1612 a, 1612 b, 1612 c, such asNBs, eNBs, gNBs or other types of wireless access points, each defininga corresponding coverage area 1613 a, 1613 b, 1613 c. Each base station1612 a, 1612 b, 1612 c is connectable to core network 1614 over a wiredor wireless connection 1615. A first UE 1691 located in coverage area1613 c is configured to wirelessly connect to, or be paged by, thecorresponding base station 1612 c. A second UE 1692 in coverage area1613 a is wirelessly connectable to the corresponding base station 1612a. While a plurality of UEs 1691, 1692 are illustrated in this example,the disclosed embodiments are equally applicable to a situation where asole UE is in the coverage area or where a sole UE is connecting to thecorresponding base station 1612.

Telecommunication network 1610 is itself connected to host computer1630, which may be embodied in the hardware and/or software of astandalone server, a cloud-implemented server, a distributed server oras processing resources in a server farm. Host computer 1630 may beunder the ownership or control of a service provider, or may be operatedby the service provider or on behalf of the service provider.Connections 1621 and 1622 between telecommunication network 1610 andhost computer 1630 may extend directly from core network 1614 to hostcomputer 1630 or may go via an optional intermediate network 1620.Intermediate network 1620 may be one of, or a combination of more thanone of, a public, private or hosted network; intermediate network 1620,if any, may be a backbone network or the Internet; in particular,intermediate network 1620 may comprise two or more sub-networks (notshown).

The communication system of FIG. 16 as a whole enables connectivitybetween the connected UEs 1691, 1692 and host computer 1630. Theconnectivity may be described as an over-the-top (OTT) connection 1650.Host computer 1630 and the connected UEs 1691, 1692 are configured tocommunicate data and/or signaling via OTT connection 1650, using accessnetwork 1611, core network 1614, any intermediate network 1620 andpossible further infrastructure (not shown) as intermediaries. OTTconnection 1650 may be transparent in the sense that the participatingcommunication devices through which OTT connection 1650 passes areunaware of routing of uplink and downlink communications. For example,base station 1612 may not or need not be informed about the past routingof an incoming downlink communication with data originating from hostcomputer 1630 to be forwarded (e.g., handed over) to a connected UE1691. Similarly, base station 1612 need not be aware of the futurerouting of an outgoing uplink communication originating from the UE 1691towards the host computer 1630.

Example implementations, in accordance with an embodiment, of the UE,base station and host computer discussed in the preceding paragraphswill now be described with reference to FIG. 17. In communication system1700, host computer 1710 comprises hardware 1715 including communicationinterface 1716 configured to set up and maintain a wired or wirelessconnection with an interface of a different communication device ofcommunication system 1700. Host computer 1710 further comprisesprocessing circuitry 1718, which may have storage and/or processingcapabilities. In particular, processing circuitry 1718 may comprise oneor more programmable processors, application-specific integratedcircuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (notshown) adapted to execute instructions. Host computer 1710 furthercomprises software 1711, which is stored in or accessible by hostcomputer 1710 and executable by processing circuitry 1718. Software 1711includes host application 1712. Host application 1712 may be operable toprovide a service to a remote user, such as UE 1730 connecting via OTTconnection 1750 terminating at UE 1730 and host computer 1710. Inproviding the service to the remote user, host application 1712 mayprovide user data which is transmitted using OTT connection 1750.

Communication system 1700 further includes base station 1720 provided ina telecommunication system and comprising hardware 1725 enabling it tocommunicate with host computer 1710 and with UE 1730. Hardware 1725 mayinclude communication interface 1726 for setting up and maintaining awired or wireless connection with an interface of a differentcommunication device of communication system 1700, as well as radiointerface 1727 for setting up and maintaining at least wirelessconnection 1770 with UE 1730 located in a coverage area (not shown inFIG. 17) served by base station 1720.

Communication interface 1726 may be configured to facilitate connection1760 to host computer 1710. Connection 1760 may be direct or it may passthrough a core network (not shown in FIG. 17) of the telecommunicationsystem and/or through one or more intermediate networks outside thetelecommunication system. In the embodiment shown, hardware 1725 of basestation 1720 further includes processing circuitry 1728, which maycomprise one or more programmable processors, application-specificintegrated circuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations ofthese (not shown) adapted to execute instructions. Base station 1720further has software 1721 stored internally or accessible via anexternal connection.

Communication system 1700 further includes UE 1730 already referred to.The hardware 1735 may include radio interface 1737 configured to set upand maintain wireless connection 1770 with a base station serving acoverage area in which UE 1730 is currently located. Hardware 1735 of UE1730 further includes processing circuitry 1738, which may comprise oneor more programmable processors, application-specific integratedcircuits, field programmable gate arrays or combinations of these (notshown) adapted to execute instructions. UE 1730 further comprisessoftware 1731, which is stored in or accessible by UE 1730 andexecutable by processing circuitry 1738. Software 1731 includes clientapplication 1732. Client application 1732 may be operable to provide aservice to a human or non-human user via UE 1730, with the support ofhost computer 1710. In host computer 1710, an executing host application1712 may communicate with the executing client application 1732 via OTTconnection 1750 terminating at UE 1730 and host computer 1710. Inproviding the service to the user, client application 1732 may receiverequest data from host application 1712 and provide user data inresponse to the request data. OTT connection 1750 may transfer both therequest data and the user data. Client application 1732 may interactwith the user to generate the user data that it provides.

It is noted that host computer 1710, base station 1720 and UE 1730illustrated in FIG. 17 may be similar or identical to host computer1630, one of base stations 1612 a, 1612 b, 1612 c and one of UEs 1691,1692 of FIG. 16, respectively. This is to say, the inner workings ofthese entities may be as shown in FIG. 17 and independently, thesurrounding network topology may be that of FIG. 16.

In FIG. 17, OTT connection 1750 has been drawn abstractly to illustratethe communication between host computer 1710 and UE 1730 via basestation 1720, without explicit reference to any intermediary devices andthe precise routing of messages via these devices. Networkinfrastructure may determine the routing, which it may be configured tohide from UE 1730 or from the service provider operating host computer1710, or both. While OTT connection 1750 is active, the networkinfrastructure may further take decisions by which it dynamicallychanges the routing (e.g., on the basis of load balancing considerationor reconfiguration of the network).

Wireless connection 1770 between UE 1730 and base station 1720 is inaccordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughoutthis disclosure. One or more of the various embodiments improve theperformance of OTT services provided to UE 1730 using OTT connection1750, in which wireless connection 1770 forms the last segment. Moreprecisely, the teachings of these embodiments may improve the latencyand can improve the average throughput of a communications system. Radioresource efficiency could be positively impacted by latency reductions.Lower packet data latency could increase the number of transmissionspossible within a certain delay bound; hence higher Block Error Rate(BLER) targets could be used for the data transmissions freeing up radioresources potentially improving the capacity of the system.

A measurement procedure may be provided for the purpose of monitoringdata rate, latency and other factors on which the one or moreembodiments improve. There may further be an optional networkfunctionality for reconfiguring OTT connection 1750 between hostcomputer 1710 and UE 1730, in response to variations in the measurementresults. The measurement procedure and/or the network functionality forreconfiguring OTT connection 1750 may be implemented in software 1711and hardware 1715 of host computer 1710 or in software 1731 and hardware1735 of UE 1730, or both. In embodiments, sensors (not shown) may bedeployed in or in association with communication devices through whichOTT connection 1750 passes; the sensors may participate in themeasurement procedure by supplying values of the monitored quantitiesexemplified above, or supplying values of other physical quantities fromwhich software 1711, 1731 may compute or estimate the monitoredquantities. The reconfiguring of OTT connection 1750 may include messageformat, retransmission settings, preferred routing etc.; thereconfiguring need not affect base station 1720, and it may be unknownor imperceptible to base station 1720. Such procedures andfunctionalities may be known and practiced in the art. In certainembodiments, measurements may involve proprietary UE signalingfacilitating host computer 1710's measurements of throughput,propagation times, latency and the like. The measurements may beimplemented in that software 1711 and 1731 causes messages to betransmitted, in particular empty or ‘dummy’ messages, using OTTconnection 1750 while it monitors propagation times, errors etc.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in acommunication system, in accordance with one embodiment. Thecommunication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UEwhich may be those described with reference to FIGS. 16 and 17. Forsimplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 18will be included in this section. In step 1810, the host computerprovides user data. In substep 1811 (which may be optional) of step1810, the host computer provides the user data by executing a hostapplication. In step 1820, the host computer initiates a transmissioncarrying the user data to the UE. In step 1830 (which may be optional),the base station transmits to the UE the user data which was carried inthe transmission that the host computer initiated, in accordance withthe teachings of the embodiments described throughout this disclosure.In step 1840 (which may also be optional), the UE executes a clientapplication associated with the host application executed by the hostcomputer.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in acommunication system, in accordance with one embodiment. Thecommunication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UEwhich may be those described with reference to FIGS. 16 and 17. Forsimplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 19will be included in this section. In step 1910 of the method, the hostcomputer provides user data. In an optional substep (not shown) the hostcomputer provides the user data by executing a host application. In step1920, the host computer initiates a transmission carrying the user datato the UE. The transmission may pass via the base station, in accordancewith the teachings of the embodiments described throughout thisdisclosure. In step 1930 (which may be optional), the UE receives theuser data carried in the transmission.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in acommunication system, in accordance with one embodiment. Thecommunication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UEwhich may be those described with reference to FIGS. 16 and 17. Forsimplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 20will be included in this section. In step 2010 (which may be optional),the UE receives input data provided by the host computer. Additionallyor alternatively, in step 2020, the UE provides user data. In substep2021 (which may be optional) of step 2020, the UE provides the user databy executing a client application. In substep 2011 (which may beoptional) of step 2010, the UE executes a client application whichprovides the user data in reaction to the received input data providedby the host computer. In providing the user data, the executed clientapplication may further consider user input received from the user.Regardless of the specific manner in which the user data was provided,the UE initiates, in substep 2030 (which may be optional), transmissionof the user data to the host computer. In step 2040 of the method, thehost computer receives the user data transmitted from the UE, inaccordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughoutthis disclosure.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating a method implemented in acommunication system, in accordance with one embodiment. Thecommunication system includes a host computer, a base station and a UEwhich may be those described with reference to FIGS. 16 and 17. Forsimplicity of the present disclosure, only drawing references to FIG. 21will be included in this section. In step 2110 (which may be optional),in accordance with the teachings of the embodiments described throughoutthis disclosure, the base station receives user data from the UE. Instep 2120 (which may be optional), the base station initiatestransmission of the received user data to the host computer. In step2130 (which may be optional), the host computer receives the user datacarried in the transmission initiated by the base station.

FIG. 22 illustrates a schematic block diagram of an apparatus 2200 in awireless network (for example, the wireless network shown in FIG. 13).The apparatus may be implemented in a wireless device or network node(e.g., wireless device 1310 or network node 1360 shown in FIG. 13).Apparatus 2200 is operable to carry out the example method describedwith reference to FIGS. 11 and/or 12. At least some operations of themethod can be performed by one or more other entities.

Virtual Apparatus 2200 may comprise processing circuitry, which mayinclude one or more microprocessor or microcontrollers, as well as otherdigital hardware, which may include digital signal processors (DSPs),special-purpose digital logic, and the like. The processing circuitrymay be configured to execute program code stored in memory, which mayinclude one or several types of memory such as read-only memory (ROM),random-access memory, cache memory, flash memory devices, opticalstorage devices, etc. Program code stored in memory includes programinstructions for executing one or more telecommunications and/or datacommunications protocols as well as instructions for carrying out one ormore of the techniques described herein, in several embodiments. In someimplementations, the processing circuitry may be used to cause mappingdetermination unit 2202, processing unit 2204, and any other suitableunits of apparatus 2200 to perform corresponding functions according oneor more embodiments of the present disclosure.

As illustrated in FIG. 22, apparatus 2200 includes mapping determinationunit 2202 and processing unit 2204. Mapping determination unit 2202 isconfigured to determine a mapping between one or more SCCE andcorresponding SREG for a communication from the base station to the UE.Processing unit 2204 is configured to process the communication from thebase station based on the mapping between one or more SCCE andcorresponding SREG for the communication from the base station.

The term unit may have conventional meaning in the field of electronics,electrical devices and/or electronic devices and may include, forexample, electrical and/or electronic circuitry, devices, modules,processors, memories, logic solid state and/or discrete devices,computer programs or instructions for carrying out respective tasks,procedures, computations, outputs, and/or displaying functions, and soon, as such as those that are described herein.

Numbered Embodiments

While not being limited thereto, some example embodiments of the presentdisclosure are provided below.

1. A method implemented in a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

receiving a communication from a base station;

determining a mapping between one or more short Control Channel Elements(SCCE) and corresponding short Resource Element Groups (SREG) for thecommunication from the base station; and processing the communicationfrom the base station based on the mapping between one or more SCCE andcorresponding SREG for the communication from the base station.

2. The method of embodiment 1 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises determiningthe mapping between the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREGbased on a demodulation scheme used for the communication from the basestation.3. The method of embodiment 2 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises:

determining that the demodulation scheme used for the communication fromthe base station is CRS; and

in response, determining the mapping between the one or more SCCE andthe corresponding SREG to achieve high frequency diversity.

4. The method of embodiment 3 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve highfrequency diversity comprises determining the SREG corresponding to anSCCE as selected in a distributed manner along the SPDCCH RB set as wellas only from 1 OFDM symbol.5. The method of embodiment 3 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve highfrequency diversity comprises:

for the distributed SCCE to SREG mapping in 1os CRS-based SPDCCH, theSREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are given by the followingdefinition:

$k + {i*\left\lfloor \frac{N_{{sREG}_{tot}}}{N_{{sREG}\text{/}{sCCE}}} \right\rfloor}$

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, N_(sREG/sCCE)−1, N_(sREGtot) is the total number ofSREGs in the SPDCCH RB set, and N_(sREG/sCCE) is the number of SREG perSCCE.6. The method of embodiment 3 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve highfrequency diversity comprises:

for the SREG based distributed mapping in 2os CRS-based SPDCCH, theSREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are given by the followingdefinition:

${k\; {mod}\; N_{{sCCE}\text{/}{OS}}} + {\left\lfloor \frac{k}{N_{{sCCE}\text{/}{OS}}} \right\rfloor*N_{\frac{sREG}{OS}}} + {i*N_{{sCCE}\text{/}{OS}}}$

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE/OS) is the numberof SCCEs per OFDM symbol within the SPDCCH RB set, i.e.

$N_{{sCCE}\text{/}{OS}} = {\left\lfloor \frac{N_{{sREG}\text{/}{OS}}}{N_{{sREG}\text{/}{sCCE}}} \right\rfloor.}$

N_(sREG/OS) is the number of SREGs per OFDM symbol and N_(sREG/sCCE) isthe number of SREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE for CRS-based SPDCCH.7. The method of embodiment 3 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve highfrequency diversity comprises:

for the SREG based localized mapping within 1os and 2os CRS-basedSPDCCH, the SREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are given by thefollowing definition:

k*N_(sREG/sCCE)+i

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, N_(sREG/sCCE)−1, and N_(sREG/sCCE) is the number ofSREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE for CRS-based SPDCCH.

8. The method of embodiment 2 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises:

determining that the demodulation scheme used for the communication fromthe base station is DMRS; and

in response, determining the mapping between the one or more SCCE andthe corresponding SREG based on that fact.

9. The method of embodiment 8 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises:

for the SCCE to SREG mapping in 2os and 3os DMRS-based SPDCCH, the SREGscorresponding to an SCCE index k are given by the following definition:

k*N_(sREG/sCCE)+i

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)−1 and N_(sREG/sCCE) is thenumber of SREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE for 2os DMRS-based SPDCCH and6 SREG/SCCE for 3os DMRS-based SPDCCH.

10. The method of any of the previous embodiments further comprising:

for an aggregation level higher than one, the SCCEs corresponding to adistributed DMRS-based SPDCCH candidate m within the UE's SPDCCH RB setis defined as follows:

$Y_{p,k}^{L} + m + {i*\frac{N_{sCCE}}{L}}$

where Y_(p,k) ^(L) is a UE's SCCE starting offset configured by higherlayer signaling, i=0, . . . , L−1. L is the aggregation level and ishigher than one, N_(sCCE) is the total number of SCCEs in the SPDCCH RBset, and m=0, . . . , M^(L)−1. M^(L) is the number of SPDCCH candidatesper aggregation level L.

11. The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein receiving thecommunication from the base station comprises receiving thecommunication from the base station on a short Physical Downlink ControlChannel (SPDCCH).12. A User Equipment (UE) configured to communicate with a base station,the UE comprising a radio interface and processing circuitry configuredto:

receive a communication from a base station;

determine a mapping between one or more short Control Channel Elements(SCCE) and corresponding short Resource Element Groups (SREG) for thecommunication from the base station; and

process the communication from the base station based on the mappingbetween one or more SCCE and corresponding SREG for the communicationfrom the base station.

13. The UE of embodiment 12 wherein determining the mapping between theone or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises determining themapping between the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG based ona demodulation scheme used for the communication from the base station.14. The UE of embodiment 13 wherein determining the mapping between theone or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises the UE furtherconfigured to:

determine that the demodulation scheme used for the communication fromthe base station is CRS; and

in response, determine the mapping between the one or more SCCE and thecorresponding SREG to achieve high frequency diversity.

15. The UE of embodiment 14 wherein determining the mapping between theone or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve high frequencydiversity comprises determining the SREG corresponding to an SCCE asselected in a distributed manner along the SPDCCH RB set as well as onlyfrom 1 OFDM symbol.16. The UE of embodiment 14 wherein determining the mapping between theone or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve high frequencydiversity comprises the UE further configured to:

for the distributed SCCE to SREG, map in 1os CRS-based SPDCCH, the SREGscorresponding to an SCCE index k are given by the following definition:

$k + {i*\left\lfloor \frac{N_{{sREG}_{tot}}}{N_{{sREG}\text{/}{sCCE}}} \right\rfloor}$

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(xREG/sCCE)−1, N_(sREGtot) is the totalnumber of SREGs in the SPDCCH RB set, and N_(sREG/sCCE) is the number ofSREG per SCCE.17. The UE of embodiment 14 wherein determining the mapping between theone or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve high frequencydiversity comprises the UE further configured to:

for the SREG based distributed mapping in 2os CRS-based SPDCCH, theSREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are given by the followingdefinition:

${kmodN_{sCC{E/O}S}} + {\left\lfloor \frac{k}{N_{sCC{E/O}S}} \right\rfloor*N_{\frac{sREG}{OS}}} + {i*N_{sCC{E/O}S}}$

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE/OS) is the numberof SCCEs per OFDM symbol within the SPDCCH RB set, i.e.

$N_{sCC{E/O}S} = {\left\lfloor \frac{N_{sRE{G/O}S}}{N_{sRE{G/s}CCE}} \right\rfloor.}$

N_(sREG/OS) is the number of SREGs per OFDM symbol and N_(sREG/sCCE) isthe number of SREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE for CRS-based SPDCCH.18. The UE of embodiment 14 wherein determining the mapping between theone or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve high frequencydiversity comprises the UE further configured to:

for the SREG based localized mapping within 1os and 2os CRS-basedSPDCCH, the SREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are given by thefollowing definition:

k*N_(sREG/sCCE)+i

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)−1, and N_(sREG/sCCE) is thenumber of SREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE for CRS-based SPDCCH.

19. The UE of embodiment 13 wherein determining the mapping between theone or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises the UE furtherconfigured to:

determine that the demodulation scheme used for the communication fromthe base station is DMRS; and

in response, determine the mapping between the one or more SCCE and thecorresponding SREG based on that fact.

20. The UE of embodiment 19 wherein determining the mapping between theone or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises the UE furtherconfigured to:

for the SCCE to SREG mapping in 2os and 3os DMRS-based SPDCCH, the SREGscorresponding to an SCCE index k are given by the following definition:

k*N_(sREG/sCCE)+i

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)−1 and N_(sREG/sCCE) is thenumber of SREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE for 2os DMRS-based SPDCCH and6 SREG/SCCE for 3os DMRS-based SPDCCH.

21. The UE of any of the previous embodiments further comprising the UEfurther configured to:

for an aggregation level higher than one, the SCCEs corresponding to adistributed DMRS-based SPDCCH candidate m within the UE's SPDCCH RB setis defined as follows:

$Y_{p,k}^{L} + m + {i*\frac{N_{sCCE}}{L}}$

where Y_(p,k) ^(L) is a UE's SCCE starting offset configured by higherlayer signaling, i=0, . . . , L−1. L is the aggregation level and ishigher than one, N_(sCCE) is the total number of SCCEs in the SPDCCH RBset, and m=0, . . . , M^(L)−1. M^(L) is the number of SPDCCH candidatesper aggregation level L.

22. The UE of any of the previous embodiments wherein receiving thecommunication from the base station comprises receiving thecommunication from the base station on a short Physical Downlink ControlChannel (SPDCCH).23. A method implemented in a base station, comprising:

determining a mapping between one or more short Control Channel Elements(SCCE) and corresponding short Resource Element Groups (SREG) for acommunication to a User Equipment (UE); and

transmitting a communication to the UE based on the mapping between theone or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG.

24. The method of embodiment 23 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises determiningthe mapping between the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREGbased on a demodulation scheme used for the communication from the basestation.25. The method of embodiment 24 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises:

determining that the demodulation scheme used for the communication fromthe base station is CRS; and

in response, determining the mapping between the one or more SCCE andthe corresponding SREG to achieve high frequency diversity.

26. The method of embodiment 25 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve highfrequency diversity comprises determining the SREG corresponding to anSCCE as selected in a distributed manner along the SPDCCH RB set as wellas only from 1 OFDM symbol.27. The method of embodiment 25 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve highfrequency diversity comprises:

for the distributed SCCE to SREG mapping in 1os CRS-based SPDCCH, theSREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are given by the followingdefinition:

$k + {i*\left\lfloor \frac{N_{sREG_{tot}}}{N_{sRE{G/s}CCE}} \right\rfloor}$

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, N_(sREG/sCCE)−1, N_(sREGtot) is the total number ofSREGs in the SPDCCH RB set, and N_(sREG/sCCE) is the number of SREG perSCCE.28. The method of embodiment 25 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve highfrequency diversity comprises:

for the SREG based distributed mapping in 2os CRS-based SPDCCH, theSREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are given by the followingdefinition:

${{kmod}N_{sCC{E/O}S}} + {\left\lfloor \frac{k}{N_{sCC{E/O}S}} \right\rfloor*N_{\frac{sREG}{OS}}} + {i*N_{sCC{E/O}S}}$

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE/OS) is the numberof SCCEs per OFDM symbol within the SPDCCH RB set, i.e.

$N_{sCC{E/O}S} = {\left\lfloor \frac{N_{sRE{G/O}S}}{N_{sRE{G/s}CCE}} \right\rfloor.}$

N_(sREG/OS) is the number of SREGs per OFDM symbol and N_(sREG/sCCE) isthe number of SREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE for CRS-based SPDCCH.29. The method of embodiment 25 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve highfrequency diversity comprises:

for the SREG based localized mapping within 1os and 2os CRS-basedSPDCCH, the SREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are given by thefollowing definition:

k*N_(sREG/sCCE)+i

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, N_(sREG/sCCE)−1, and N_(sREG/sCCE) is the number ofSREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE for CRS-based SPDCCH.

30. The method of embodiment 24 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises:

determining that the demodulation scheme used for the communication fromthe base station is DMRS; and

in response, determining the mapping between the one or more SCCE andthe corresponding SREG based on that fact.

31. The method of embodiment 30 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises:

for the SCCE to SREG mapping in 2os and 3os DMRS-based SPDCCH, the SREGscorresponding to an SCCE index k are given by the following definition:

k*N_(sREG/sCCE)+i

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)−1 and N_(sREG/sCCE) is thenumber of SREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE for 2os DMRS-based SPDCCH and6 SREG/SCCE for 3os DMRS-based SPDCCH.

32. The method of any of the previous embodiments further comprising:

for an aggregation level higher than one, the SCCEs corresponding to adistributed DMRS-based SPDCCH candidate m within the UE's SPDCCH RB setis defined as follows:

$Y_{p,k}^{L} + m + {i*\frac{N_{sCCE}}{L}}$

where Y_(p,k) ^(L) is a UE's SCCE starting offset configured by higherlayer signaling, i=0, . . . , L−1. L is the aggregation level and ishigher than one, N_(sCCE) is the total number of SCCEs in the SPDCCH RBset, and m=0, . . . , M^(L)−1. M^(L) is the number of SPDCCH candidatesper aggregation level L.

33. The method of any of the previous embodiments wherein receiving thecommunication from the base station comprises receiving thecommunication from the base station on a short Physical Downlink ControlChannel (SPDCCH).34. A base station configured to communicate with a User Equipment (UE),the base station comprising a radio interface and processing circuitryconfigured to:

determine a mapping between one or more short Control Channel Elements(SCCE) and corresponding short Resource Element Groups (SREG) for acommunication to a User Equipment (UE); and

transmit a communication to the UE based on the mapping between the oneor more SCCE and the corresponding SREG.

35. The base station of embodiment 34 wherein determining the mappingbetween the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprisesdetermining the mapping between the one or more SCCE and thecorresponding SREG based on a demodulation scheme used for thecommunication from the base station.36. The base station of embodiment 35 wherein determining the mappingbetween the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises thebase station further configured to:

determine that the demodulation scheme used for the communication fromthe base station is CRS; and

in response, determine the mapping between the one or more SCCE and thecorresponding SREG to achieve high frequency diversity.

37. The base station of embodiment 36 wherein determining the mappingbetween the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve highfrequency diversity comprises determining the SREG corresponding to anSCCE as selected in a distributed manner along the SPDCCH RB set as wellas only from 1 OFDM symbol.38. The base station of embodiment 36 wherein determining the mappingbetween the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve highfrequency diversity comprises the base station further configured to:

for the distributed SCCE to SREG, map in 1os CRS-based SPDCCH, the SREGscorresponding to an SCCE index k are given by the following definition:

$k + {i*\left\lfloor \frac{N_{sREG_{tot}}}{N_{sRE{G/s}CCE}} \right\rfloor}$

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)−1, N_(sREGtot) is the totalnumber of SREGs in the SPDCCH RB set, and N_(sREG/sCCE) is the number ofSREG per SCCE.39. The base station of embodiment 36 wherein determining the mappingbetween the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve highfrequency diversity comprises the base station further configured to:

for the SREG based distributed mapping in 2os CRS-based SPDCCH, theSREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are given by the followingdefinition:

${{kmod}N_{sCC{E/O}S}} + {\left\lfloor \frac{k}{N_{sCC{E/O}S}} \right\rfloor*N_{\frac{sREG}{OS}}} + {i*N_{sCC{E/O}S}}$

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE/OS) is the numberof SCCEs per OFDM symbol within the SPDCCH RB set, i.e.

$N_{sCC{E/O}S} = {\left\lfloor \frac{N_{sRE{G/O}S}}{N_{sRE{G/s}CCE}} \right\rfloor.}$

N_(sREG/OS) is the number of SREGs per OFDM symbol and N_(sREG/sCCE) isthe number of SREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE for CRS-based SPDCCH.40. The base station of embodiment 36 wherein determining the mappingbetween the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve highfrequency diversity comprises the base station further configured to:

for the SREG based localized mapping within 1os and 2os CRS-basedSPDCCH, the SREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are given by thefollowing definition:

k*N_(sREG/sCCE)+i

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)−1, and N_(sREG/sCCE) is thenumber of SREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE for CRS-based SPDCCH.

41. The base station of embodiment 35 wherein determining the mappingbetween the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises thebase station further configured to:

determine that the demodulation scheme used for the communication fromthe base station is DMRS; and

in response, determine the mapping between the one or more SCCE and thecorresponding SREG based on that fact.

42. The base station of embodiment 41 wherein determining the mappingbetween the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises thebase station further configured to:

for the SCCE to SREG mapping in 2os and 3os DMRS-based SPDCCH, the SREGscorresponding to an SCCE index k are given by the following definition:

k*N_(sREG/sCCE)+i

where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCE in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)1 and N_(sREG/sCCE) is thenumber of SREG per SCCE, i.e. 4 SREG/SCCE for 2os DMRS-based SPDCCH and6 SREG/SCCE for 3os DMRS-based SPDCCH.

43. The base station of any of the previous embodiments furthercomprising the base station further configured to:

for an aggregation level higher than one, the SCCEs corresponding to adistributed DMRS-based SPDCCH candidate m within the UE's SPDCCH RB setis defined as follows:

$Y_{p,k}^{L} + m + {i*\frac{N_{sCCE}}{L}}$

where Y_(p,k) ^(L) is a UE's SCCE starting offset configured by higherlayer signaling, i=0, . . . , L−1. L is the aggregation level and ishigher than one, N_(sCCE) is the total number of SCCEs in the SPDCCH RBset, and m=0, . . . , M^(L)−1. M^(L) is the number of SPDCCH candidatesper aggregation level L.

44. The base station of any of the previous embodiments whereinreceiving the communication from the base station comprises receivingthe communication from the base station on a short Physical DownlinkControl Channel (SPDCCH).45. A communication system including a host computer comprising:

processing circuitry configured to provide user data; and

a communication interface configured to forward the user data to acellular network for transmission to a User Equipment (UE), wherein thecellular network comprises a base station having a radio interface andprocessing circuitry, the base station's processing circuitry configuredto:

-   -   determine a mapping between one or more short Control Channel        Elements (SCCE) and corresponding short Resource Element Groups        (SREG) for a communication to a User Equipment (UE); and    -   transmit a communication to the UE based on the mapping between        the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG.        46. The communication system of embodiment 45, further including        the base station.        47. The communication system of embodiment 46, further including        the UE, wherein the UE is configured to communicate with the        base station.        48. The communication system of embodiment 47, wherein:

the processing circuitry of the host computer is configured to execute ahost application, thereby providing the user data; and

the UE comprises processing circuitry configured to execute a clientapplication associated with the host application.

49. A method implemented in a communication system including a hostcomputer, a base station and a User Equipment (UE), the methodcomprising:

at the host computer, providing user data; and

at the host computer, initiating a transmission carrying the user datato the UE via a cellular network comprising the base station, whereinthe base station:

-   -   receives a communication from a base station;    -   determines a mapping between one or more short Control Channel        Elements (SCCE) and corresponding short Resource Element Groups        (SREG) for the communication from the base station; and    -   processes the communication from the base station based on the        mapping between one or more SCCE and corresponding SREG for the        communication from the base station.        50. The method of embodiment 49, further comprising:

at the base station, transmitting the user data.

51. The method of embodiment 50, wherein the user data is provided atthe host computer by executing a host application, the method furthercomprising:

at the UE, executing a client application associated with the hostapplication.

At least some of the following abbreviations may be used in thisdisclosure. If there is an inconsistency between abbreviations,preference should be given to how it is used above. If listed multipletimes below, the first listing should be preferred over any subsequentlisting(s).

-   -   3GPP Third Generation Partnership Project    -   AL Aggregation Level    -   BLER Block Error Rate    -   CCE Control Channel Element    -   CRS Cell Specific Reference Signal    -   DCI Downlink Control Information    -   DL Downlink    -   DMRS Demodulation Reference Signal    -   EPDCCH Enhanced Physical Downlink Control Channel    -   E-UTRAN Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network    -   eNB Enhanced or Evolved Node B    -   gNB New Radio Base Station    -   LTE Long Term Evolution    -   ms millisecond    -   NB Node B    -   NR New Radio    -   OFDM Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing    -   RAN Radio Access Node    -   RB Resource Block    -   RBG Resource Block Group    -   RNTI Radio Network Temporary Identifier    -   RRC Radio Resource Control    -   SCCE short Control Channel Element    -   SC-FDMA Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access    -   SF Subframe    -   SPDCCH short Physical Downlink Control Channel    -   SPDSCH short Physical Downlink Shared Channel    -   SREG short Resource Element Group    -   STTI Short Transmit Time Interval    -   TTI Transmit Time Interval    -   UE User Equipment    -   UL Uplink

Those skilled in the art will recognize improvements and modificationsto the embodiments of the present disclosure. All such improvements andmodifications are considered within the scope of the concepts disclosedherein.

1. A method implemented in a User Equipment, UE, comprising: receiving acommunication from a base station; determining mapping between one ormore Short Control Channel Elements, SCCEs, and corresponding ShortResource Element Groups, SREGs, for the communication from the basestation; and processing the communication from the base station based onthe mapping between the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG forthe communication from the base station.
 2. The method of claim 1wherein determining the mapping between the one or more SCCE and thecorresponding SREG comprises: determining the mapping between the one ormore SCCE and the corresponding SREG based on a demodulation scheme usedfor the communication from the base station.
 3. The method of claim 2wherein determining the mapping between the one or more SCCE and thecorresponding SREG comprises: determining that the demodulation schemeused for the communication from the base station is a Cell SpecificReference Signal, CRS; and in response, determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve highfrequency diversity.
 4. The method of claim 3 wherein determining themapping between the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG toachieve the high frequency diversity comprises determining the SREGcorresponding to the SCCE as selected in a distributed manner along aShort Physical Downlink Control Channel, SPDCCH, Resource Block, RB, setas well as only from 1 Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM,symbol.
 5. The method of claim 4 wherein determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG to achieve the highfrequency diversity comprises: for the distributed SCCE to SREG mappingin a 1os CRS-based Short Physical Downlink Control Channel, SPDCCH, theSREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are given by the followingdefinition:$k + {i*\left\lfloor \frac{N_{sREG_{tot}}}{N_{sRE{G/s}CCE}} \right\rfloor}$where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCEs in anSPDCCH Resource Block, RB, set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)−1, N_(sRE)_(Gtot) is the total number of SREGs in the SPDCCH RB set, andN_(sREG/sCCE) is the number of SREGs per SCCE.
 6. The method of claim 4wherein determining the mapping between the one or more SCCEs and thecorresponding SREGs to achieve the high frequency diversity comprises:for the SREG based distributed mapping in a 2os CRS-based Short PhysicalDownlink Control Channel, SPDCCH, the SREGs corresponding to an SCCEindex k are given by the following definition:${{kmod}N_{sCC{E/O}S}} + {\left\lfloor \frac{k}{N_{sCC{E/O}S}} \right\rfloor*N_{\frac{sREG}{OS}}} + {i*N_{sCC{E/O}S}}$where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the number of SCCEs in theSPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE/OS) is the numberof SCCEs per Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing, OFDM, symbolwithin the SPDCCH RB set;${N_{sCC{E/O}S} = \left\lfloor \frac{N_{sRE{G/O}S}}{N_{sRE{G/s}CCE}} \right\rfloor};$N_(sREG/OS) is the number of SREGs per OFDM symbol and N_(sREG/sCCE) isthe number of SREGs per SCCE.
 7. The method of claim 3 whereinN_(sREG/sCCE) is 4 for a CRS-based SPDCCH where N_(sREG/sCCE) is thenumber of SREGs per SCCE.
 8. The method of claim 3 wherein determiningthe mapping between the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG toachieve the high frequency diversity comprises: for the SREG basedlocalized mapping within a 1os and 2os CRS-based Short Physical DownlinkControl Channel, SPDCCH, the SREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k aregiven by the following definition:k*N_(sREG/sCCE)+i where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the numberof SCCEs in the SPDCCH RB set, i=0, . . . , N_(sREG/sCCE)−1, andN_(sREG/sCCE) is the number of SREGs per SCCE.
 9. The method of claim 8wherein N_(sREG/sCCE) is 4 for a CRS-based SPDCCH.
 10. The method ofclaim 2 wherein determining the mapping between the one or more SCCE andthe corresponding SREG comprises: determining that a demodulation schemeused for the communication from the base station is a DemodulationReference Signal, DMRS; and in response, determining the mapping betweenthe one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG based on that fact. 11.The method of claim 10 wherein determining the mapping between the oneor more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises: for the SCCE to SREGmapping in 2os and 3os DMRS-based Short Physical Downlink ControlChannels, SPDCCHs, the SREGs corresponding to an SCCE index k are givenby the following definition:k*N_(sREG/sCCE)+i where k=0, . . . , N_(sCCE)−1, N_(sCCE) is the numberof SCCE in the SPDCCH Resource Block, RB, set, i=0, . . . ,N_(sREG/sCCE)−1 and N_(sREG/sCCE) is the number of SREGs per SCCE. 12.The method of claim 11 wherein N_(sREG/sCCE) is 4 for the 2os DMRS-basedSPDCCH.
 13. The method of claim 11 wherein N_(sREG/sCCE) is 6 for the3os DMRS-based SPDCCH.
 14. The method of claim 1 further comprising: foran aggregation level higher than one, the SCCEs corresponding to adistributed DMRS-based SPDCCH candidate m within the SPDCCH RB set ofthe UE is defined as follows: $Y_{p,k}^{L} + m + {i*\frac{N_{sCCE}}{L}}$where Y_(p,k) ^(L) is an SCCE starting offset of the UE configured byhigher layer signaling, i=0, . . . , L−1; L is the aggregation level andis higher than one; N_(sCCE) is the total number of SCCEs in the SPDCCHRB set; m=0, . . . , M^(L)−1; and M^(L) is the number of SPDCCHcandidates per aggregation level L.
 15. The method of claim 1 whereinreceiving the communication from the base station comprises receivingthe communication from the base station on an SPDCCH.
 16. A UserEquipment, UE, configured to communicate with a base station, the UEcomprising a radio interface and processing circuitry configured to:receive a communication from the base station; determine a mappingbetween one or more Short Control Channel Elements, SCCEs, andcorresponding Short Resource Element Groups, SREGs, for thecommunication from the base station; and process the communication fromthe base station based on the mapping between the one or more SCCE andcorresponding SREG for the communication from the base station.
 17. TheUE of claim 16 wherein determining the mapping between the one or moreSCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises determining the mappingbetween the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG based on ademodulation scheme used for the communication from the base station.18. The UE of claim 17 wherein determining the mapping between the oneor more SCCE and the corresponding SREG comprises the UE furtherconfigured to: determine that the demodulation scheme used for thecommunication from the base station is a Cell Specific Reference Signal,CRS; and in response, determine the mapping between the one or more SCCEand the corresponding SREG to achieve high frequency diversity. 19-30.(canceled)
 31. A method implemented in a base station, comprising:determining a mapping between one or more short Control ChannelElements, SCCEs, and corresponding short Resource Element Groups, SREGs,for a communication to a User Equipment, UE; and transmitting thecommunication to the UE based on the mapping between the one or moreSCCE and the corresponding SREG. 32-45. (canceled)
 46. A base stationconfigured to communicate with a User Equipment, UE, the base stationcomprising a radio interface and processing circuitry configured to:determine a mapping between one or more short Control Channel Elements,SCCEs, and corresponding short Resource Element Groups, SREGs, for acommunication to the UE; and transmit the communication to the UE basedon the mapping between the one or more SCCE and the corresponding SREG.47-67. (canceled)